(_ ''"**  SmUNnBPn^pjii, 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


.- 


book  is  DUE  or  i  IIBPV*Y 


104- 


SIAIE  NORMAL  SQ1UUL, 


THE   FOUR    GREAT   AMERICANS    SERIES 

BIOGRAPHICAL    STORIES    FOR    YOUNG    READERS 

Edited  by  JAMES  BALDWIN,  Ph.D. 


COMPLIMENTS 

AMERICAN  BOOK  00. 

A  F  OONN,  Geii'l  Ag\ 

PIN  E&  BATTERY 
FRANCISCO. 


GREAT  AMERICAN  EDUCATORS 


The  Four  Great  Americans  Series 

Edited  by  JAMES  BALDWIN,  Ph.D. 

BIOGRAPHICAL  STORIES  OF  GREAT  AMERICANS  FOR 
YOUNG  AMERICAN   READERS 

I.     FOUR  GREAT  AMERICANS 

George  Washington  Benjamin  Franklin 

Daniel  Webster  Abraham  Lincoln 

By  James  Baldwin,  Ph.D. 
Cloth.  Illustrated.  246  pages.  Price  500 

II.     FOUR  AMERICAN  PATRIOTS 

Patrick  Henry  Alexander  Hamilton 

Andrew  Jackson  Ulysses  S.  Grant 

By  Alma  Holman  Burton 

Author  of  "The  Story  of  Our  Country,"  "Lafayette,"  etc. 
Cloth.  Illustrated.  256  pages.  Price  500 

III.  FOUR  AMERICAN  NAVAL  HEROES 

Paul  Jones  Oliver  H.  Perry 

David  G.  Farragut  George  Dewey 

By  Mabel  Barton  Beebe 
Cloth.  Illustrated.  254  pages.  Price  soc 

IV.  FOUR  AMERICAN  POETS 

William  Cullen  Bryant  Henry  W.  Longfellow 

John  G.  Whittler  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes 

By  Sherwin  Cody 
Cloth.  Portraits.  ^    254  pages.  Price  soc 

V.     FOUR  FAMOUS  AMERICAN  WRITERS 

Washington  Irving  Edgar  Allan  Poe 

James  Russell  Lowell  Bayard  Taylor 

By  Sher-urin  Cody 

Cloth.  Portraits.  256  pages.  Price  500 

•  VI.     FOUR  AMERICAN  PIONEERS 

Daniel  Boone  George  Rogers  Clark 

David  Crockett  Kit  Carson 

By  Frances  M.  Perry  and  Katherine  Beebe 
Cloth.  Illustrated.  256  pages.  Price  soc 

VII.     GREAT  AMERICAN  EDUCATORS 

Horace  Mann  Mary  Lyon 

David  P.  Page  Henry  Barnard,  ei  ul 

By  A.  E.   Winship,  Litt.D. 

OTHER  VOLUMES   IN   PREPARATION 


GREAT 
AMERICAN  EDUCATORS 


WITH   CHAPTERS  ON 


AMERICAN   EDUCATION 


BY 

A.    E.   WINSHIP,  LITT.D. 


COPYRIGHT,  1900 
Bv  WERNER  SCHOOL  BOOK  COMPANY 


rijr  Uakfsftr  ])rtss 

R.   R.   DONNELLEY   *  SONS   COMPANY 
CHICAGO 


Library 

i-A 


PREFACE 

CHILDREN  do  not  often  play  that  they  are 
poets  or  inventors,  soldiers  or  sailors,  but  they 
love  to  play  school  and  church.  One  of  the 
first  aspirations  of  ordinary  children  is  to  teach 
or  to  preach.  The  teacher  and  the  preacher 
are  their  early  ideals  of  greatness.  This  results 
from  what  they  see  and  know,  and  not  from 
anything  that  they  hear  about  these  leaders. 
They  are  told  of  the  acts  of  heroic  soldiers 
and  sailors,  of  great  orators  and  inventors,  of 
famous  poets  and  artists.  But  teachers  and 
preachers  are  rarely  the  subjects  of  stories;  and 
they  seldom  in  any  way  give  an  impression  that 
there  have  been  great  leaders  in  either  of  these 
professions. 

Most  teachers  take  pleasure  in  relating  to 
their  pupils  inspiring  stories  of  famous  men  and 
women  who  have  made  the  world  better  by 
having  lived  in  it.  They  err  greatly  if  they 
neglect  to  tell  about  the  lives  and  achievements 

5 


6  PREFACE 

of  educational  leaders.  If  they  know  so  little 
about  educators  that  they  cannot  make  the 
story  of  their  deeds  interesting,  then  others 
have  erred  in  not  making  that  story  more 
familiar. 

This  book  has  been  written  to  help  teachers 
interest  children  in  great  educators. 

The  men  and  women  who  have  done  so 
much  for  the  improvement  of  the  schools  of 
this  country,  and  have  made  it  possible  for 
every  boy  and  girl  to  secure  a  thorough  educa- 
tion, are  worthy  to  be  remembered  among  the 
"  Great  Americans,"  and  the  record  of  their 
lives  should  be  as  inspiring  to  our  young  people 
as  the  stories  of  patriots  and  heroes  of  war. 
Their  example  should  help  to  the  teaching  of 
higher  and  better  aims  in  human  life,  and  to 
the  encouragement  of  manly  endeavor  and 
heroic  effort. 

It  is  earnestly  hoped,  also,  that  the  brief 
biographies  here  presented  will  prove  to  be  a 
source  of  inspiration  and  encouragement  to 
many  y?nng  teachers.  These  examples  of  per- 
severance, of  devotion  to  duty,  and  of  ultimate 
success,  illustrate  the  possibilities  that  are  within 


PREFACE  7 

the  reach  of  faithful,  earnest  workers  in  the 
educational  field,  even  when  opposed  by  seem- 
ingly insurmountable  difficulties. 

The  brief  sketch  of  the  history  of  public- 
school  education  in  America  will  be  of  especial 
interest  to  teachers  and  those  preparing  to 
teach.  The  story  of  the  manner  in  which  our 
present  systems  of  instruction  have  been  slowly 
developed  and  adopted  is  not  without  its  lessons 
even  to  young  readers. 


"BE   ASHAMED   TO   DIE   UNTIL  YOU    HAVE   WON   SOME   VIC- 
TORY FOR  HUMANITY." — Horace  Mann. 


.    CONTENTS 

PAGE 

HORACE  MANN,  J3 

The  Successful  Leader,  15 

His  Birthplace,       -  i/ 

His  Home,        -  -                                         18 

His  Boyhood,  19 

His  Love  for  his  Mother,  -                                                      21 

At  School,    -  -                                               22 

In  College,        -  24 

College  Fun,  25 
Studying  Law, 

In  the  Legislature,  •                      29 

Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education,  32 

Mr.  Mann's  Reports,  35 

Mr.  Mann's  Triumph,  41 

As  a  Statesman,      -  43 

His  Personality,  45 

His  Friends,  •                                   46 

In  the  West,     -  4$ 

MARY  LYON,     -  53 

The  Founder  of  Seminaries  for  Girls,                                         55 
Her  Birthplace, 

Childhood,   '     -  59 

School  Life,  •                                 65 

As  a  Teacher,  -  68 

A  New  Seminary,  -  7° 

Development  of  Character,  -                                                      73 

Mount  Holyoke  Seminary,  •          75 

Teaching,  Woman's  Ideal,  •                                                      76 

Her  Purpose  in  Life,  -                      78 

Her  Benevolence,        -  79 

Her  Mottoes,  79 

At  Rest,             -  80 


10  CONTENTS 

PAGB 

DAVID  P.  PAGE,  81 

"Theory  and  Practice  of  Teaching,"  83 

Childhood,  84 

At  School,  85 

Newbury,    -  87 
Boarding  Around, 

His  Private  School,  90 

A  Great  Speech,          -  92 

A  Normal  School  Principal,  95 

The  Gospel  of  the  Profession,  96 

Opposition,  97 

"Succeed  or  Die,"  •                                       99 

HENRY  BARNARD,       -  •                                          101 

His  Boyhood,    -  -                                       104 

At  College,  -        105 

Choosing  a  Career,       -  -                                       106 

!  School  Work  in  Connecticut,  -            -                        -         107 

\  In  Rhode  Island,  108 

••>  Other  Positions,      -  109 

Commissioner  of  Education,  -            -                           in 

As  an  Author,                      -  1 12 

JOHN  DUDLEY  PHILBRICK,  115 

His  Birthplace,       -  -                                     -        118 

His  Boyhood,    -                        -  119 

Making  Maple  Sugar,       -  -        120 

Breaking  Steers,  •                                       121 

The  Turning  Point,  -            -        122 

At  College,       -  123 

A  Boston  Schoolmaster,    -  124 

In  Connecticut,                         -  127 

Superintendent  in  Boston,  •                       -        128 

NEWTON  BATEMAN,  131 

Childhood,  -         135 

His  Education,  -            -                           136 

The  Years  of  Struggle,      -  -                                 138 

Prosperity,        -  140 


CONTENTS  I I 

PAGE 

State  Superintendent,        -  -           -        141 

As  College  President,  •            •               143 

The  End,     -  -    \   144 

EDWARD  A.  SHELDON,     -  •              145 

His  Education,       -  •                                     -        149 

His  First  School,  150 

Superintendent  of  Schools,  -            -        151 

Methods  of  Teaching,  -                                        153 

His  School  Reports,  -        156 

The  Normal  School,    -  158* 

An  Author,  -        160 

JAM*:S  P.  WICKERSHAM,  -                      -163 

Birthplace  and  Boyhood,  -        166 

The  Friends'  Meeting,  -            -                           167 

As  a  Teacher,         -  -                                170 

As  State  Superintendent,        -  -                                        171 

Other  Labors,  -        172 

FOUNDERS  AND  BENEFACTORS  OF  AMERICAN  COLLEGES,     175 

John  Harvard,         -  -         177 

Elihu  Yale,       -  182 

Mark  Hopkins,       -  -         187 

Frederick  A.  P.  Barnard,        -  200 

Charles  G.  Finney,  •        211 

HISTORICAL  SKETCH  OF  AMERICAN  EDUCATION,      -  223 

1870-1900,    -  -        227 

1840-1870,  229 

1810-1840,    -  -       230 

1780-1810,  230 

1750-1780,    -  -       233 

1700-1750,  234 

1610-1700,    -  -       238 

The  Middle  Colonies,  •                           238 

The  New  England  Colonies,  •                                     •        241 

Massachusetts,             ...  .               246 


PORTRAITS 

PACK 

HORACE' MANN,  14 

MARY  LYON,  aged  34,  54 

MARY  LYON,  aged  50,  -  77 

DAVID  P.  PAGE,     -  82 

HENRY  BARNARD,       -  102 

JOHN  DUDLEY  PHILBRICK,  116 

NEWTON  BATEMAN,     -  132 

EDWARD  A.  SHELDON,      -  146 

JAMES  P:  WICKERSHAM,  164 

JOHN  HARVARD,     -  176 

ELIHU  YALE,    -  -                                          183 

MARK  HOPKINS,     -           -  189 

FREDERICK  A.  P.  BARNARD,  -        201 

CHARLES  G.  FINNEY,         -  213 


12 


HORACE  MANN 

AMERICA'S  GREATEST   EDUCATOR 


HORACE   MANN 

AMERICA'S  GREATEST  EDUCATIONAL  LEADER 
1796-1859 

THE    SUCCESSFUL    LEADER 

2  104-4- 
HORACE    MANN    is    by   general    consent    the 

greatest  educator  that  this  Western  hemi- 
sphere has  produced.  He  was  not  the  greatest 
scholar,  was  not  the  greatest  teacher,  was  not 
the  best  beloved  by  the  teachers  of  his  day,  yet 
he  is  everywhere  known  as  the  first  among 
American  educational  leaders.  A  man  in  the 
army  or  the  navy  becomes  a  leader  by  gaining 
some  great  battle  on  land  or  sea,  or  by  conduct- 
ing a  successful  campaign.  A  statesman  be- 
comes a  leader  through  the  influence  of  some 
powerful  speech,  or  by  achieving  success  in  law, 
or  by  winning  the  favor  of  a  political  party. 
An  inventor  becomes  a  leader  by  making  a 
great  discovery,  or  by  developing  some  new 
scientific  principle.  Horace  Mann  had  no  such 
direct  road  to  leadership  as  had  Grant,  Dewey, 
Webster,  or  Edison;  and  we  must  trace  his 
progress  to  distinction  as  an  educational  re- 

15 


16  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

former  more  carefully  and  patiently.  It  is  in- 
teresting to  study  the  childhood  and  manhood 
of  any  famous  person,  whether  he  be  a  hero  of 
the  battlefield  or  of  intellectual  progress. 

Horace  Mann  was  a  leader  because  he  suc- 
cessfully attacked  old-fashioned  ways  at  the 
right  time.  He  was  not  a  teacher,  but  he  knew 
that  the  teachers  of  sixty  years  ago  whipped 
children  too  often  and  too  hard.  He  knew  that 
too  much  time  was  spent  teaching  things  that 
were  of  little  account.  He  also  knew  that  the 
schools  ought  to  have  superintendents,  that  the 
school  year  ought  to  be  longer,  and  that  more 
money  ought  to  be  spent  for  public  education. 

Because  of  Mr.  Mann's  leadership,  there  are 
now  better  teachers  and  better  schoolhouses  all 
over  the  United  States;  there  is  less  punishment 
in  school;  there  have  come  to  be  superintend- 
ents everywhere;  and  much  more  money  is  ex- 
pended on  the  schools. 

When  Mr.  Mann  began  his  reforms  he  was 
the  only  person  in  educational  work  who  attracted 
more  than  local  attention.  He  was  the  first 
man  to  make  educational  addresses  outside 
of  his  own  state;  and  the  first  American  to 
write  anything  upon  education  that  was  read  in 
Europe.  Other  men  have  since  made  educa- 
tional addresses  in  more  states  than  he  ever 
dreamed  of;  others  have  written  educational 


HORACE    MANN  17 

books  that  have  been  translated  into  many  lan- 
guages; but  Horace  Mann  was  the  first  in  all 
lines  of  popular  educational  reform. 

HIS   BIRTHPLACE 

Horace  Mann  was  born  at  Franklin,  Massa- 
chusetts, May  4,  1796.  Franklin  is  now  a  beau- 
tiful and  thrifty  town,  but  one  hundred  years 
ago  it  was  a  small  community  in  which  most  of 
the  people  were  trying  to  get  a  living  by  culti- 
vating very  poor  sandy  soil.  It  has  now  four 
thousand  inhabitants,  but  then  it  had  only  about  , 
four  hundred. 

The  town  was  organized  in  1778,  and  named  in 
honor  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  then  the  most  emi- 
nent man  in  America.  Some  of  the  townspeople 
told  Dr.  Franklin  that  he  had  been  remembered 
by  the  citizens,  and  that  they  would  be  pleased 
if  he  in  turn  would  remember  them  with  the 
gift  of  a  bell.  Dr.  Franklin  thanked  them,  and 
said  that  people  who  chose  so  good  a  name  must 
care  more  for  sense  than  for  sound;  and  he 
therefore  gave  them  a  public  library  of  five 
hundred  volumes. 

If  the  town  had  not  been  named  for  him,  Dr. 
Franklin  would  have  had  no  occasion  to  show 
his  generosity  and  good  sense  by  the  gift  of  a 
library.  As  this  library  furnished  the  only  books 
that  Horace  Mann  had  in  his  boyhood  and  youth, 


1 8  GREAT   AMERICAN   EDUCATORS 

without  it  he  would  probably  have  developed  no 
taste  for  scholarship,  and  the  world  would  not 
have  known  this  most  brilliant  American  edu- 
cator. Mr.  Mann  was  so  much  indebted  to  this 
library,  that  in  speaking  of  it  in  later  years,  he 
said  he  would  like  to  scatter  libraries  broadcast 
over  the  land  as  a  farmer  sows  his  wheat. 

Franklin  is  the  birthplace  of  several  other 
eminent  men.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Nathaniel  Em- 
mons,  who  was  settled  over  the  church  of  the 
town  twenty-three  years  before  Horace  Mann 
was  born,  and  continued  to  be  its  pastor  until 
Mr.  Mann  was  thirty-one,  was  one  of  the  great 
preachers  of  New  England.  William  M.  Thayer 
of  Franklin,  who  was  thirty-eight  years  old 
when  Mr.  Mann  died,  lived  until  1898.  He  was 
a  popular  writer  of  books  for  schools  and  for 
young  people.  The  most  eminent  man  ever 
born  in  the  town,  however,  was  Horace  Mann. 

HIS  HOME 

No  picture  is  to  be  had  of  Horace  Mann's 
birthplace,  for  the  humble  little  farmhouse  in 
which  he  was  born  was  much  altered  by  his 
elder  brother,  and  has  since  been  made  into 
a  large,  awkward  building,  which  retains  none 
of  the  appearance  of  the  home  of  his  child- 
hood. 

His  father  died  when  the  lad  was  thirteen 


HORACE    MANN  IQ 

years  old.  He  was  an  industrious  farmer,  but 
the  land  was  very  poor,  and  he  was  unable  to 
do  more  than  to  feed  and  clothe  his  family 
comfortably.  He  could  not  provide  books  or 
education  for  the  children  beyond  what  the 
schools  of  the  town  furnished. 

Horace's  mother  was  a  noble  woman,  but  so 
reserved  that  she  showed  slight  affection,  and 
there  was  little  joy  in  his  home  life.  In  later 
years  Mr.  Mann  wrote  that  he  regarded  it  as  a 
misfortune  that  his  childhood  was  not  a  happy 
one.  In  this  home,  and  under  these  conditions 
of  poverty  and  unhappiness,  he  remained  until 
he  was  twenty-one. 

HIS  BOYHOOD 

A  hard  life  was  that  of  the  boy  who  became 
Dr.  Mann  in  later  life.  He  said  in  speaking  of 
it  afterwards  that  he  never  had  a  play-day  till 
he  was  twenty;  that  the  most  he  ever  hoped  for 
in  childhood  was  a  play-hour  earned  by  extra 
exertions  in  getting  work  done  ahead  of  time. 
So  early  in  life  did  he  begin  to  help  his  parents, 
that  he  said  he  could  not  remember  the  time 
when  he  did  not  work.  In  the  spring,  summer, 
and  autumn  he  had  to  begin  work  about  the 
farm  very  early  in  the  day,  and  keep  at  it  until 
it  was  time  to  be  in  bed. 

His  work  in  the  winter  was  braiding   straw 


20  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

for  hats.  In  those  days  there  were  no  machines 
for  braiding  straw;  but  now  all  the  work,  both 
of  braiding  and  of  sewing  the  braids  together 
into  hats,  is  done  by  machinery.  Women  used 
to  make  all  the  straw  braid,  and  southeastern 
Massachusetts  was  a  great  section  for  this  work. 
Men  drove  to  Franklin  and  the  neighboring 
towns  once  a  week  in  large  covered  wagons 
loaded  with  bundles  of  straw,  which  they  left 
with  the  farmers'  wives  in  return  for  the  braids 
they  had  made. 

Boys  never  liked  to  braid  straw,  and  it  was 
considered  girls'  work.  But  Horace  worked 
with  his  mother  braiding  straw  all  the  long 
winter  days  and  evenings  until  he  was  nearly 
twenty  years  old.  The  people  in  Franklin 
thought  he  lacked  pluck,  and  called  him  a  girlish 
boy,  because  he  did  so  much  girls'  work. 

He  never  had  any  of  the  common  vices  of 
childhood  or  youth.  He  never  used  a  profane, 
vulgar,  or  indecent  word;  he  never  used  tobacco 
or  intoxicating  liquors  in  any  form.  From  early 
boyhood  he  fought  against  being  the  slave  to 
any  habit.  He  always  thought  that  he  owed 
his  good  habits  to  the  fact  that  he  spent  so 
much  time  with  his  mother. 

The  most  impressive  event  in  his  early  life 
was  the  death  of  his  twelve-year-old  brother, 
who  was  drowned.  The  charming  little  fellow 


HORACE    MANN  21 

was  very  dear  to  Horace,  and  his  tragic  death 
had  a  great  influence  upon  him. 

Horace  Mann  never  dreamed  of  being  a 
famous  man,  as  many  boys  do;  but  he  built 
castles  in  the  air  about  knowing  a  great  deal 
and  doing  much  to  benefit  his  fellow-men. 

It  is  well  to  remember  these  conditions  of 
his  boyhood  in  reading  of  the  many  occasions 
when  he  had  to  choose  between  greatness  and 
usefulness. 

HIS  LOVE  FOR  HIS  MOTHER 

Few  boys  ever  loved  a  mother  so  devotedly 
as  did  Horace  Mann.  He  says  of  her: 

"  Principle,  duty,  gratitude,  affection,  have 
bound  me  so  closely  to  that  parent  whom  alone 
Heaven  has  spared  me,  that  she  seems  to  me 
rather  a  portion  of  my  own  existence  than  a 
separate  and  independent  being.  I  can  conceive 
no  emotions  more  pure,  more  holy,  more  like 
those  which  glow  in  the  bosom  of  a  perfected 
being,  than  those  which  a  virtuous  son  must  feel 
towards  an  affectionate  mother.  I  can  truly 
say  that  the  strongest  and  most  abiding  incen- 
tive to  excellence  by  which  I  was  ever  animated 
sprang  from  that  look  of  solicitude  and  hope, 
that  heavenly  expression  of  maternal  tenderness, 
when,  without  the  utterance  of  a  single  word, 
my  mother  has  looked  into  my  face,  and  silently 


22  GREAT  AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

told  me  that  my  life  was  freighted  with  a  two- 
fold being,  for  it  bore  her  destiny  as  well  as  my 
own." 

AT  SCHOOL 

Horace  Mann  had  no  good  school  privileges. 
There  was  a  poor  school  in  a  little  schoolhouse 
at  the  cross-roads  in  his  part  of  the  town,  but  it 
was  in  session  only  a  few  weeks  in  the  summer 
and  a  few  weeks  more  in  the  winter.  He  could 
not  go  in  the  summer  because  he  was  needed  to 
work  on  the  farm;  and  hence,  until  he  was 
fifteen  years  old  he  never  went  to  school  more 
than  ten  weeks  in  the  year. 

In  those  days  neither  drawing  nor  music  was 
taught  in  school;  there  were  no  pictures  on  the 
walls  or  the  blackboards.  Often  when  the  quiet 
little  boy  drew  a  picture  on  his  slate  because  he 
loved  to  draw  so  much  that  he  could  not  help  it, 
the  teacher  would  strike  him  across  the  knuckles 
with  the  ruler. 

There  was  no  "nature  study"  in  his  child- 
hood, and  no  out-of-door  study  of  geography  or 
of  botany.  He  was  taught  nothing  except  what 
was  in  the  book,  and  he  had  to  learn  all  that  was 
there  just  as  it  was  printed.  He  once  said  that 
the  little  school  which  he  attended  in  his  boyhood 
was  "  the  smallest  school  in  the  poorest  school- 
house  with  the  cheapest  teachers  in  the  state." 


HORACE    MANN  23 

He  had  a  great  love  for  books,  even  at  a 
very  early  age,  and  every  book  he  owned  was 
sacred  to  him.  None  was  ever  dog-eared,  and 
he  never  scribbled  on  the  fly-leaf  or  the  margin 
of  a  page.  Whatever  books  he  had  he  earned 
by  extra  work,  and  he  bought  all  his  school- 
books  with  money  earned  by  braiding  straw. 

The  first  good  school  that  he  attended  was  a 
private  school  in  the  village  of  Franklin,  which 
was  taught  by  Samuel  Barrett.  This  man  rarely 
stayed  in  any  place  more  than  six  months.  He 
was  an  eccentric  fellow,  but  one  of  the  best 
teachers  of  the  classics  ever  known  in  New 
England.  When,  at  twenty  years  of  age,  Horace 
Mann  began  to  study  with  Barrett  he  had  never 
so  much  as  seen  a  Greek  or  a  Latin  book.  After 
a  day  or  two,  Barrett  saw  the  power  that  might 
be  developed  in  him,  and  said, — 

"  Horace,  you  must  go  to  college." 

The  young  man  smiled,  and  replied  that  it 
was  useless  to  think  of  it;  he  could  not  do  it,  for 
he  knew  no  Greek  or  Latin. 

"But  you  shall  go,"  insisted  Barrett;  "I  will 
prepare  you  for  college." 

It  seems  incredible,  but  so  enthusiastic  were 
the  teacher  and  the  student  of  twenty  years, 
that  at  the  end  of  six  months  young  Mann 
passed  the  examinations  for  Brown  University 
and  entered  the  Sophomore  class. 


24  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

In  six  months  he  mastered  the  Latin  and 
Greek  grammars,  and  read  ^sop's  Fables,  the 
^Eneid,  Cicero's  Select  Orations,  the  four  Gos- 
pels and  most  of  the  Epistles  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament in  Greek,  parts  of  the  Georgics  and 
Bucolics,  and  parts  of  Graeca  Majorica  and 
Minora. 

IN  COLLEGE 

Few  young  men  have  done  so  much  difficult 
work  in  the  classics  in  six  months  as  did  Horace 
Mann  in  preparing  for  the  Sophomore  class. 
Despite  this  hurried  preparation,  which  almost 
made  him  a  physical  wreck,  and  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that  he  had  to  teach  a  country  school 
part  of  the  time  that  he  was  pursuing  his  college 
studies,  he  graduated  in  three  years  at  the  head 
of  his  class,  carrying  off  the  highest  honors. 

He  had  almost  no  money  for  college  life. 
He  never  complained,  but  rather  made  light  of 
his  poverty.  While  at  college  he  wrote  his 
sister: — 

"  If  the  children  of  Israel  were  pressed  for 
'gear'  half  so  hard  as  I  have  been,  I  do  not 
wonder  they  were  willing  to  worship  a  golden 
calf.  It  is  a  long,  long  time  since  my  last  nine- 
pence*  bade  good-bye  to  its  brethren;  and  I 
suspect  the  last  two  parted  on  no  very  friendly 

*Twelve-and-a-half-cent  piece. 


HORACE    MANN  25 

terms,  for  they  have  never  since  met  together. 
Poor  wretches!  Never  did  two  souls  stand  in 
greater  need  of  mutual  support  and  consola- 
tion." 

His  mature  age,  earnest  purpose,  and  lack  of 
funds  helped  materially  to  aid  his  naturally  vir- 
tuous and  noble  traits  in  college  days. 

He  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  students  in 
Greek  and  Latin  in  the  history  of  the  university. 
He  translated  with  surprising  facility,  accuracy, 
and  elegance.  His  English  was  that  of  a  master. 
His  taste  and  talent  in  this  respect  were  much 
aided  by  his  reading  of  the  works  of  the  great 
writers  from  the  Franklin  library  in  his  early 
years.  He  was  never  good  in  mathematics  or 
the  sciences. 

His  valedictory  theme  was  "The  Progressive 
Character  of  the  Human  Race."  This  is  one 
of  the  great  efforts  of  New  England  college 
graduations. 

COLLEGE  FUN 

It  must  not  be  thought  that  Horace  Mann 
was  prosy  because  he  was  good  and  studied 
hard.  Professor  Edwards  A.  Park,  of  Andover 
Seminary,  who  was  in  Brown  University  with 
him,  says  he  was  one  of  the  most  mischievous 
fellows  in  college.  He  would  never  do  a  mean 
thing,  or  let  any  one  else  act  meanly,  but  he  had 


26  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

more  fun  of  the  harmless  kind  in  him  than  any 
other  man  in  his  class. 

One  story  that  is  told  of  him  is,  that  the  pres- 
ident came  to  his  room  one  night  when  the  boys 
were  having  a  jolly  time  in  a  way  that  was 
entirely  harmless.  The  president  stood  so  near 
the  door  that  no  one  could  go  out.  Quick  as  a 
flash,  Horace  blew  out  the  candle,  made  a  dive 
for  the  president's  feet,  pushed  them  apart  and 
crept  through.  The  dignified  president  had  all 
he  could  do  to  keep  his  balance,  and  so  made  no 
attempt  to  seize  Mann  or  any  of  his  companions. 
The  whole  performance  was  so  funny  that  the 
president  never  referred  to  it,  but  he  could  not 
help  smiling  the  first  few  times  he  saw  Horace 
Mann  afterwards. 

The  students  had  long  been  in  the  habit  of 
celebrating  the  Fourth  of  July  in  the  college 
chapel.  In  his  junior  year  the  college  authori- 
ties forbade  the  celebration  because  of  some 
wildness  the  year  before.  The  boys  had  made 
their  arrangements  before  the  refusal  of  the 
authorities  became  known,  and  Horace  Mann 
had  been  chosen  orator. 

The  students  were  very  indignant.  Mann 
said  that  he  thought  the  college  authorities  were 
in  the  right;  but  if  the  boys  decided  to  have  their 
celebration,  he  would  do  his  part.  He  declared 
that  it  was  bad  enough  to  rebel  against  the  col- 


HORACE    MANN  27 

lege  authorities,  but  it  was  worse  to  rebel  against 
one's  classmates. 

The  college  faculty  imposed  a  trifling  fine 
upon  Mr.  Mann  for  acting  as  orator  in  defiance 
of  their  edict,  but  they  never  thought  the  less  of 
him  for  it.  When  he  was  himself  a  college 
president,  years  afterwards,  he  remembered  this 
bit  of  rebellion  in  his  student  days. 

STUDYING  LAW 

After  graduating  from  college  Horace  Mann 
entered  a  law  office  at  Wrentham,  Massachusetts, 
as  a  student  of  law;  but  he  soon  accepted  an 
invitation  to  return  to  Brown  University  as  a 
tutor  in  Latin  and  Greek.  He  was  an  excellent 
teacher,  but  after  a  little  time  he  went  to  Litch- 
field,  Connecticut,  to  study  law  again. 

This  law  school  was  large,  and  the  best  in 
the  country.  Mr.  Mann  was  soon  recognized 
as  the  best  scholar  and  the  best  lawyer  in  the 
school.  Many  of  the  students  had  already  been 
admitted  to  the  bar,  and  were  at  Litchfield  for 
further  special  study. 

One  incident  of  the  year  is  worth  repeating. 
Professor  Gould,  the  leading  lecturer  of  the  law 
school,  held  a  moot  court,  a  sort  of  mock  trial, 
once  a  week,  and  the  case  to  be  tried  was 
announced  a  week  in  advance.  Professor  Gould 
acted  as  judge,  and  the  students  elected  the 


28 

prosecuting  attorney.  Mr.  Mann  was  chosen 
for  this  position,  and  on  one  occasion  he  argued 
so  brilliantly  against  the  previous  ruling  of  Judge 
Gould  that  the  judge  lost  his  temper  and  refused 
to  allow  Mr.  Mann  to  proceed,  for  fear  the 
students  would  think  that  his  law  was  better 
than  the  professor's. 

AS  A  LAWYER 

Mr.  Mann  practiced  law  in  Dedham  and 
Boston  for  fourteen  years.  It  is  a  matter  of 
court  record  that  in  that  time  he  gained  four 
out  of  five  of  all  the  cases  he  tried  in  court. 
He  was  a  brilliant  lawyer,  and  had  he  de- 
voted himself  to  his  profession  he  would  cer- 
tainly have  been  classed  with  Webster  and 
Choate. 

He  enjoyed  thinking  out  the  line  of  argument 
for  a  case  and  pleading  it  in  court,  but  he  did 
not  like  the  drudgery  of  looking  up  the  law 
points.  He  had  not  the  patience  to  sit  in  a  law 
library  day  after  day  in  search  of  precedents  in 
a  given  case. 

He  would  not  take  any  criminal  case  unless 
convinced  that  he  was  on  the  right  side.  This 
lost  him  the  best  paying  practice.  If  a  man 
knows  he  is  in  the  wrong,  he  will  pay  a  large  sum 
to  be  cleared  of  the  charge  against  him;  but  if  he 
knows  he  is  innocent,  he  is  apt  to  think  that  it 


HORACE    MANN  29 

is  not  worth  much  to  make  a  jury  see  he  is  right. 
Mr.  Mann  did  not  have  large  fees,  though  he 
had  some  important  cases. 

As  a  lawyer,  Mr.  Mann  was  very  convincing 
and  magnetic.  He  did  not  try  to  argue  the  jury 
into  a  verdict  as  he  wanted  it,  but  tried  to  make 
them  see  the  case  as  he  did,  to  believe  in  his 
client  as  thoroughly  as  he  himself  did.  He  made 
them  feel  that  he  was  a  sincere  and  honest  man, 
and  that  he  believed  his  case  to  be  a  just  one. 

Not  only  did  he  choose  the  least  lucrative 
practice,  but  he  also  assumed  many  of  the  debts 
of  his  eldest  brother,  who  had  been  very  enter- 
prising and  apparently  very  prosperous.  This 
brother  borrowed  money  from  nearly  every  one 
in  Franklin,  and  many  loaned  him  large  sums, 
because  he  was  the  brother  of  Horace  Mann. 
After  a  time  he  proved  to  be  unprincipled,  and 
left  town  never  to  return.  It  was  a  great  grief 
to  Mr.  Mann,  and  he  set  himself  to  paying  off 
his  brother's  debts.  Although  he  had  a  fair 
income  from  his  practice,  he  lived  on  two  meals 
a  day  and  slept  on  a  lounge  in  his  Boston  office, 
in  order  to  save  money  to  pay  these  debts. 

IN  THE  LEGISLATURE 

Horace  Mann  went  to  Dedham,  Massachu- 
setts, as  assistant  in  a  law  office,  and  before  he 
had  been  in  the  town  a  year  he  was  elected  to 


30  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

the  legislature.  He  was  kept  there  by  annual 
re-election  for  ten  years. 

It  is  quite  out  of  the  ordinary  course  of  things 
for  a  man  to  be  sent  to  the  legislature  before 
he  has  lived  in  a  community  long  enough  to 
render  service  to  his  party.  Political  prejudices 
are  always  aroused  against  any  man  who  aspires 
to  office  soon  after  his  arrival  in  a  town.  New 
England  is  very  conservative  in  such  matters. 
Mr.  Mann's  election  was  a  remarkable  instance 
of  quick  recognition  of  ability. 

His  election  was  a  great  surprise  to  him,  and 
it  is  said  to  have  been  due  to  his  grand  Fourth  of 
July  oration  the  year  he  became  a  resident  of 
Dedham.  This  was  considered  the  ablest  address 
ever  heard  in  that  town,  and  the  citizens  de- 
manded that  he  should  represent  them  in  the 
legislature. 

It  was  the  first  public  recognition  of  any 
kind  that  Mr.  Mann  had  received.  He  was 
now  thirty  years  of  age,  and  had  never  pre- 
viously appeared  before  the  public  in  any 
capacity.  The  enthusiastic  reception  of  this 
Fourth  of  July  speech  was,  therefore,  very 
pleasing.  It  showed  that  he  had  power  and 
popular  talent.  He  had  had  no  political  aspira- 
tions, but  he  was  much  gratified  at  being  sent 
to  the  legislature.  He  had  simply  been  work- 
ing his  way  through  college  and  law  school, 


HORACE    MANN  31 

patiently  waiting  to  get  into  the  practice  of  law. 
The  reward  was  unexpected  and  welcome. 

If  Mr.  Mann  had  been  shrewd,  in  the  ordi- 
nary sense  of  the  word,  he  would  have  taken 
advantage  of  his  opportunities  in  the  legislature 
to  build  up  a  law  practice.  He  might  have 
been  a  member  of  some  committee  that  would 
have  helped  him  in  getting  business;  but  instead, 
he  unselfishly  gave  his  time  and  thought  to 
reforms.  He  did  much  for  the  insane,  for  the 
feeble-minded,  for  a  school  for  the  blind,  and 
for  education.  These  causes  did  not  bring  him 
paying  practice,  and  they  took  his  thoughts 
away  from  law. 

There  has  been  no  other  instance  in  the 
history  of  Massachusetts,  if  indeed  in  any  state, 
where  a  born  leader,  a  man  of  great  ability  in 
law  and  politics,  has  devoted  himself  to  legisla- 
tive life  for  ten  years  for  the  purpose  of  passing 
laws  to  benefit  children,  idiots,  the  insane,  the 
deaf,  and  the  blind.  This  is  what  Horace  Mann 
did. 

After  he  had  been  in  the  Massachusetts  house 
of  representatives  for  eight  years,  he  moved 
from  Dedham  to  Boston.  He  was  sent  to  the 
state  senate  the  same  year,  and  became  presi- 
dent of  that  body.  He  was  now  in  line  for  high 
political  positions.  He  was  the  best  political 
speaker  in  the  state.  Even  Daniel  Webster 


32  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

could  not  make  so  popular  a  political  speech  as 
Horace  Mann.  He  was  in  sympathy  with  all 
progressive  measures.  The  people  believed  in 
him,  and  his  friends  looked  forward  to  a  great 
political  future  for  him. 

SECRETARY    OF    THE    BOARD    OF    EDUCATION 

For  fifteen  years  there  had  been  much  talk 
about  educational  reform  in  Massachusetts,  but 
it  had  accomplished  little.  Every  effort  failed 
until  Mr.  Mann  became  president  of  the  senate 
and  leader  of  the  legislature.  Then  he  took 
charge  of  the  educational  reform  bill,  and  it  was 
made  a  law.  The  friends  of  the  new  movement 
wished  him  to  become  secretary  of  the  State 
Board  of  Education.  The  salary  was  small. 
The  position  would  take  him  out  of  politics  and 
out  of  law.  No  one  supposed  he  would  give 
any  thought  to  the  offer,  but  he  accepted  it. 

It  was  a  great  surprise  and  disappointment  to 
his  friends,  but  their  remonstrance  did  not  keep 
him  from  his  purpose.  He  announced  that  his 
law  office  was  to  let  and  his  law  library  for  sale, 
saying:  "The  next  generation  is  to  be  my 
client.  The  bar  is  no  longer  my  forum.  I  have 
betaken  myself  to  the  larger  sphere  of  mind  and 
morals Men  are  cast  iron,  but  chil- 
dren are  wax." 

The  State    Board  of    Education  would    not 


HORACE    MANN  33 

have  been  created  at  that  time  but  for  Mr. 
Mann's  efforts,  and  he  accepted  the  position  of 
secretary  largely  because  he  drifted  into  such 
relation  to  the  establishment  of  it  that  he  was 
the  only  one  who  could  make  a  success  of  the 
office.  His  friends  were  much  chagrined  that 
the  title  was  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, instead  of  President.  This  title  made  him 
appear  as  a  servant,  they  said,  but  the  other 
would  make  him  its  master.  His  reply  was, 
that  he  would  prefer  to  make  the  title  honor- 
able rather  than  have  a  title  attempt  to  make 
him  more  honored.  He  said,  "  I  will  not  be 
indebted  to  a  title." 

He  did,  indeed,  make  the  title  honorable, 
and  the  position  of  state  superintendent  of 
schools  is  nowhere  in  the  United  States  more 
honorable  than  that  of  secretary  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Board  of  Education. 

AN  EDUCATIONAL  LEADER 

For  twelve  years  Horace  Mann  was  at  the 
head  of  the  school  interests  of  Massachusetts. 
Through  him  the  first  normal  schools  were 
opened  in  the  United  States,  and  to  him  pri- 
marily the  country  owes  all  of  her  normal 
schools. 

When  Mr.  Mann  organized  the  State  Board 
of  Education,  more  money  was  being  spent  for 


34  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

tuition  in  private  schools  in  Boston  than  was 
paid  by  the  city  for  public  schools.  Few  parents 
would  send  a  child  to  the  public  schools  if  they 
could  afford  to  put  him  in  a  private  school. 
Everywhere  the  private  schools  were  for  the 
rich,  the  public  schools  for  the  poor.  The  public 
schools  were  then  called  "common"  schools. 

In  twelve  years  Mr.  Mann  changed  this.  The 
public  schools  became  good  schools,  and  the  rich 
were  as  proud  of  them  as  the  poor.  There  were 
better  schoolhouses,  better  teachers,  better 
books  used,  and  a  greater  interest  in  the  schools 
everywhere  because  of  his  work. 

Mr.  Mann's  first  effort  was  to  interest  the 
people  by  making  educational  addresses  in  the 
cities  and  towns.  He  was  considered  a  great 
orator  by  so  good  a  judge  as  John  Quincy 
Adams,  president  of  the  United  States. 

It  was  annoying  to  him  that  even  the  news- 
papers would  give  no  attention  to  educational 
affairs.  The  local  paper  in  the  town  of  Barn- 
stable  gave  a  few  lines  to  his  grand  address,  and 
more  than  a  column  to  a  political  convention 
held  to  nominate  a  man  for  some  small  office. 
This  politician  was  unknown  fifty  miles  from  the 
town,  and  would  be  known  nowhere  in  a  few 
years;  but  Mr.  Mann  was  appreciated  in  Europe 
as  well  as  in  America,  and  was  to  be  honored 
for  centuries.  Yet  the  newspapers  could  give 


HORACE    MANN  35 

only  a  few  lines  to  him  though  they  had  columns 
for  politics. 

There  is  a  strange  contrast  between  the  way 
the  newspapers  estimated  the  educator  and  the 
politician,  and  the  way  Mr.  Mann  the  educator 
overshadows  Mr.  Mann  the  politician  in  history. 
For  twelve  years  he  put  the  best  of  his  thought 
into  the  cause  of  education.  He  was  brilliant 
in  many  ways,  but  he  lives  in  history  as  an 

educator. 

• 

MR.  MANN'S  REPORTS 

Horace  Mann's  twelve  Reports  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Board  of  Education  are  among  the 
greatest  educational  writings  in  the  history  of 
our  country.  His  Report  in  1837  was  the  first 
publication  of  the  kind  in  the  United  States. 
Now  every  state  in  the  Union  issues  educational 
reports.  Since  1837  nearly  two  thousand  state 
reports  have  been  written,  but  not  one  has  been 
as  good  as  Mr.  Mann's  First,  Fifth,  and  Seventh 
reports. 

Here  are  a  few  sentences  from  his  First  Re- 
port : 

"I  have  attended  educational  conventions  in 
every  county  in  the  state  but  one,  and  neither 
in  convention  nor  in  correspondence  concerning 
them  was  there  the  slightest  ingredient  of  par- 
tisan politics."  That  was  written  in  1837,  and 


36  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

since  that  time  there  has  never  been  any  par- 
tisan politics  in  state  educational  matters  in 
Massachusetts. 

"The  object  of  the  common  school  system  is 
to  give  to  every  child  a  free,  straight,  solid  path- 
way by  which  he  can  walk  directly  up  from  the 
ignorance  of  an  infant  to  a  knowledge  of  the 
primary  duties  of  a  man,  and  can  acquire  a 
power  and  an  invincible  will  to  discharge  them." 

Mr.  Mann  insisted  that  these  ends  could  not 
be  attained  without  numerous  good  school- 
houses,  an  intelligent  and  faithful  school  board, 
an  interested  public,  and  competent  teachers. 

Most  children  spend  a  considerable  portion 
of  their  time  in  schoolhouses,  and  the  condition 
of  the  building  connects  itself  closely  with  their 
love  of  study,  proficiency,  health,  and  length  of 
life.  The  well-being  of  the  children  requires 
that  careful  attention  be  given  to  the  school- 
houses,  and  this  question  has  never  been  more 
ably  discussed  than  by  Mr.  Mann  in  his  First 
Report  more  than  sixty  years  ago. 

THE  FIFTH  REPORT 

Mr.  Mann's  Reports  attracted  much  attention 
outside  of  Massachusetts.  The  New  York  state 
assembly  had  eighteen  thousand  copies  of  the 
Fifth  Report  printed.  In  the  London  city 
council,  after  a  vote  had  been  taken  against 


HORACE    MANN  37 

making  an  appropriation  for  the  schools,  a 
member  asked  the  privilege  of  reading  from 
Mr.  Mann's  Fifth  Report.  The  reading  made 
so  great  an  impression  that  the  vote  was  recon- 
sidered and  the  appropriation  made. 

The  British  Parliament  reprinted  by  special 
vote  a  large  part  of  his  Seventh  Report.  Both 
the  Fifth  and  Seventh  reports  were  translated, 
and  large  editions  were  printed  by  the  German 
government.  No  other  American  educational 
documents  ever  received  so  much  attention. 

This  Fifth  Report  makes  a  grand  argument 
for  the  advantages  of  common  school  education. 
Mr.  Mann  says  that  the  movement  of  the  sun 
to  the  south  does  not  more  certainly  bring 
winter  with  its  bleakness  and  sterility,  nor  his 
movement  north  bring  summer  with  all  its 
beauty  and  abundance,  than  does  the  want  or 
the  enjoyment  of  education  degrade  or  elevate 
the  condition  of  a  people. 

He  shows  in  this  Report  "  the  effect  of  edu- 
cation upon  the  worldly  fortunes  and  estates  of 
men, — its  influence  upon  property,  upon  human 
comfort  and  competence,  upon  the  outward, 
visible,  material  interests  or  well-being  of  in- 
dividuals and  communities." 

"The  more  educated  a  people  are,  the  more 
will  they  abound  in  all  those  conveniences,  com- 
forts, and  satisfactions  which  money  will  buy." 


38  GREAT   AMERICAN   EDUCATORS 

"Education  must  enlighten  mankind  in  the 
choice  of  pursuits,  it  must  guide  them  in  the 
selection  and  use  of  the  most  appropriate  means, 
it  must  impart  that  steadiness  of  purpose  which 
results  from  comprehending  the  connections  of 
a  long  train  of  events,  and  seeing  the  end  from 
the  beginning,  or  all  enterprises  will  terminate 
in  ruin." 

These  are  samples  of  thirty-five  pages  of 
vigorous,  noble  utterances,  every  sentence  of 
which  carries  conviction.  It  is  no  wonder  that 
the  New  York  assembly,  the  British  Parliament, 
ana  the  German  government  republished  such 
sentiments.  The  effect  of  that  Fifth  Report 
has  not  ceased  to  be  felt  throughout  the  length 
and  breadth  of  the  land. 

THE  SEVENTH  REPORT 

The  Seventh  Report,  written  in  1843,  is  an 
account  of  his  six  months'  study  of  the  schools  of 
England,  Scotland,  France,  Prussia,  Germany, 
and  other  European  countries.  It  is  the  most 
readable  educational  document  ever  published 
in  Europe  or  America.  It  is  interesting  from 
first  to  last,  and  is  of  almost  as  great  interest 
to-day  as  when  it  first  appeared.  There  is  a 
spirit  and  snap  in  it  that  will  never  let  it  die. 

This  Seventh  Report  made  some  criticisms 
of  the  Boston  schools,  which  were  resented  by 


HORACE    MANN  39 

the  thirty-one  Boston  masters,  as  the  school 
principals  were  called,  and  they  published  a 
long  and  keen  reply,  called  "  Remarks  upon  the 
Seventh  Report  of  Mr.  Mann."  He  made  a 
reply  to  these  "Remarks,"  whereupon  they  sent 
a  "Rejoinder."  His  "Answer  to  the  Rejoinder 
to  the  Reply  to  the  Remarks  on  the  Seventh 
Report  "  closed  the  discussion. 

This  discussion  is  the  most  interesting  educa- 
tional controversy  that  the  world  has  known. 
It  was  a  sad  chapter  in  Mr.  Mann's  career.  It 
caused  him  much  anxiety,  yet  but  for  this  Con- 
troversy, his  place  in  history  would  not  have 
been  as  great  as  it  now  is. 

From  the  first,  his  ideal  had  been  the 
Prussian  schools,  and  his  tour  abroad  revealed 
these  schools  to  him  under  favorable  conditions. 
He  was  lionized  in  Scotland,  England,  Ireland, 
Germany,  Saxony,  Holland,  Belgium,  France,  and 
Prussia,  and  he  wrote  of  their  schools  with  high 
praise.  Reading  this  report  in  the  light  of 
modern  times,  when  criticism  is  freely  indulged 
in,  one  cannot  understand  why  any  special 
exception  should  have  been  taken  to  it.  He 
said  :  "  I  have  visited  countries  where  there  is 
no  national  system  of  education,  and  countries 
where  the  minutest  details  of  the  schools  are 
regulated  by  law.  I  have  seen  schools  in  which 
each  word  and  process,  in  many  lessons,  was 


40  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

almost  overloaded  with  explanations  and  com- 
mentary; and  many  schools  in  which  four  or  five 
hundred  children  were  obliged  to  commit  to 
memory,  in  the  Latin  language,  the  entire  book 
of  Psalms  and  other  parts  of  the  Bible,  neither 
teachers  nor  children  understanding  a  word  of 
the  language  which  they  were  prating.  I  have 
seen  countries  in  whose  schools  all  forms  of  cor- 
poral punishment  were  used  without  stint  or 
measure;  and  I  have  visited  one  nation  in  whose 
excellent  and  well-ordered  schools  scarcely  a 
blow  has  been  struck  for  more  than  a  quarter  of 
a  century.  On  reflection,  it  seems  to  me  that  it 
would  be  most  strange  if,  from  all  this  variety  of 
system 'and  of  no  system,  of  sound  instruction 
and  of  babbling,  of  the  discipline  of  violence 
and  of  moral  means,  many  beneficial  hints  for 
our  warning  or  our  imitation  could  not  be 
derived. 

"  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  there  are 
many  things  abroad  which  we,  at  home,  should 
do  well  to  imitate.  ...  If  the  Prussian  school- 
master has  better  methods  of  teaching  reading, 
writing,  grammar,  geography,  arithmetic,  etc.,  so 
that,  in  half  the  time,  he  produces  greater  and 
better  results,  surely  we  may  copy  his  modes  of 
teaching  these  elements,  without  adopting  his 
notions  of  passive  obedience  to  government,  or 
of  blind  adherence  to  the  articles  of  a  church." 


HORACE    MANN  41 

The  first  reception  of  the  report  was  the 
most  enthusiastic  given  to  any  of  his  publications, 
but  the  private  criticism  greatly  annoyed  him, 
and  he  wrote,  as  early  as  April:  "There  are  owls 
who,  to  adapt  the  world  to  their  own  eyes,  would 
always  keep  the  sun  from  rising.  Most  teachers 
amongst  us  have  been  animated  to  greater  ex- 
ertions by  the  account  of  the  best  schools  abroad. 
Others  are  offended  at  being  driven  out  of  the 
paradise  which  their  own  self-esteem  had  erected 
for  them." 

This  report  was  immediately  construed  by  the 
Boston  masters  as  a  reflection  upon  their  methods. 
For  months,  in  every  educational  convention 
held  throughout  the  state,  some  of  the  grammar 
masters  were  sure  to  attack  the  ideas  presented 
by  Mr.  Mann.  The  "Remarks"  in  which  they 
answered  his  criticisms  were  brilliant  productions, 
very  carefully  prepared.  They  were  widely  read, 
and  a  bitter  controversy  was  soon  raging. 

MR.  MANN'S  TRIUMPH 

When  the  conflict  with  the  Boston  masters 
reached  its  height,  Mr.  Mann's  friends  took 
charge  of  affairs.  It  was  seen  that  he  was  no 
better  qualified  to  conduct  his  own  case  than  a 
lawyer  to  plead  his  own  cause  or  a  physican  to 
administer  to  himself  in  a  high  fever.  Thirty 
of  the  most  eminent  men  of  Boston  organized 


42  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

themselves  at  once  to  withstand  the  attack  of 
the  Boston  masters.  They  took  in  hand  the 
election  of  school  boards,  the  examination  of 
the  grammar  schools,  the  removal  of  inefficient 
grammar  masters  —  four  of  whom  were  dis- 
missed within  two  years — the  management  of 
the  legislature,  and  all  other  matters  of  this 
kind. 

The  masters  thought  their  triumph  was  to 
be  sure  and  speedy.  Some  of  them  had  said, 
in  the  hour  of  over-confidence,  "the  Board  of 
Education  is  already  abolished,  we  only  await  the 
action  of  the  legislature  to  record  the  fact." 
They  soon  found,  however,  that  they  were  in 
conflict,  not  with  Mr.  Mann,  but  with  the  spirit 
of  progress  itself,  with  principalities  and  powers, 
with  unseen  forces,  social  and  political.  No 
men  or  body  of  men  could  have  won  in  such  a 
contest. 

Josiah  Quincy,  Charles  Sumner,  Edward 
Everett,  John  G.  Whittier,  Henry  Wilson,  Anson 
P.  Burlingame,  Theodore  Parker,  with  mer- 
chants, bankers,  and  professional  men,  arrayed 
themselves  with  Mr.  Mann.  These  thirty  at 
once  raised  among  themselves  $5,000,  and  asked 
the  legislature  for  a  like  sum,  that  thus  $10,000 
might  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Board  of 
Education  for  the  improvement  of  the  normal 
schools.  Charles  Sumner  gave  his  bond  for 


HORACE    MANN  43 

the  payment  of  this  sum.  This  was  done  as  a 
vote  of  confidence  in  the  board  and  its  secretary, 
and  it  passed  almost  unanimously. 

AS  A  STATESMAN 

When  Mr.  Mann  left  law  and  politics  for  an 
educational  career,  he  lost  caste  politically.  His 
influence  waned.  He  was  not  sought  by  cam- 
paign committees,  and  the  legislature  where  he 
had  served  for  many  years  heeded  his  pleadings 
little  more  than  those  of  a  stranger.  Never- 
theless, before  the  echoes  of  the  controversy 
had  died  away,  Mr.  Mann  was  selected  from 
Daniel  Webster's  congressional  district  to  take 
the  seat  in  Congress  made  vacant  by  the  sudden 
death  of  ex-President  John  Quincy  Adams. 
Such  honor  has  rarely  come  to  an  educator. 

From  the  first  he  attracted  attention  in  Wash- 
ington because  of  his  reputation  and  oratorical 
power.  He  had  been  in  Congress  but  a  little 
time  when  Mr.  Webster  delivered  his  famous — 
many  thought  infamous  —  seventh  of  March 
speech,  in  which  he  outraged  the  political  senti- 
ment of  Massachusetts.  Mr.  Mann  seized  the 
occasion  for  heroic  action.  He  reasoned,  as  he 
afterwards  admitted,  that  with  the  feeling  against 
him  because  of  this  speech,  Mr.  Webster  would 
not  venture  to  be  a  candidate  for  re-election;  if 
he  did,  defeat  was  certain.  In  view  of  these  con- 


44  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

ditions,  Mr.  Mann  made  a  keen,  severe  attack 
upon  Mr.  Webster,  which  angered  that  statesman 
as  nothing  else  in  his  experience  had  done.  This 
was  due  partly  to  the  fact  that  it  came  when  he 
was  unprepared  to  meet  it,  and  partly  because 
of  the  audacity,  and  as  he  thought,  impropriety, 
of  the  junior  congressman  administering  a  rebuke 
to  the  senior  senator. 

At  this  juncture  President  Taylor  died,  Mr. 
Filmore  succeeded  him,  and  Mr.  Webster  was 
made  Secretary  of  State,  with  all  the  patronage 
for  New  England  at  his  disposal.  Nothing  could 
have  been  more  unfortunate  for  Mr.  Mann.  The 
condemnation  was  now  directed  to  him,  and 
criticisms,  public  and  private,  were  showered 
upon  him.  When  his  term  expired  and  he  was 
up  for  re-election,  Mr.  Webster  and  the  entire 
party  machinery  worked  against  him  with  such 
vigor  that  he  lost  the  renomination  by  a  single 
vote.  He  declared  himself  an  independent  can- 
didate, spoke  in  every  village  and  hamlet  in  the 
district,  and  was  elected  over  the  regular  nomi- 
nee by  a  large  vote.  This  was  a  personal  triumph 
for  Mr.  Mann,  but  for  Mr.  Webster  it  was  a  per- 
sonal rebuke  which  he  felt  keenly. 

Mr.  Mann's  congressional  record  was  emi- 
nently creditable,  and  demonstrated  his  states- 
manlike qualities.  At  the  close  of  the  regulation 
term  in  Congress  he  was  made  the  candidate  of 


HORACE    MANN  45 

the  new  party  of  Sumner,  Wilson,  Burlingame, 
and  others  for  governor.  There  was  no  possi- 
bility that  year  of  his  election,  and  he  put  no 
heart  into  the  campaign.  His  nomination  was 
made  by  Henry  Wilson  and  seconded  by  Anson 
P.  Burlingame,  in  speeches  that  were  among  the 
noblest  tributes  ever  offered  a  candidate.  With 
this  defeat  he  retired  from  the  political  arena, 
where  he  had  won  laurels  and  had  been  of  great 
service  to  humanity.  The  brilliancy  of  this  ex- 
perience added  a  halo  to  his  educational  service, 
which  gave  it  character  and  statesmanlike 
dignity. 

HIS  PERSONALITY 

A  general  in  the  army,  an'admiral  in  the  navy, 
an  inventor  or  a  discoverer,  maybe  a  leader  with 
only  one  or  two  prominent  characteristics,  but 
an  educational  leader  .needs  many  natural  forces 
of  character  and  many  attainments.  We  have 
seen  many  sides  of  Horace  Mann's  nature — his 
perseverance,  his  unselfishness,  his  uprightness 
and  justice,  his  power  as  lawyer,  statesman,  and 
educator. 

His  friends  found  him  as  delightful  and  as 
brilliant  in  conversation  as  in  any  other  line. 
With  equal  ease  he  could  entertain  the  Gay 
Head  Indians  in  their  rude  cottages,  and  Edward 
Everett,  Josiah  Quincy,  or  Charles  Sumner  in 


46  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

their  elegant  homes.  His  conversation  abounded 
in  sparkling  repartee  and  spontaneous  wit,  and 
his  merry  laugh  was  as  contagious  as  in  college 
days.  There  was  never  any  nonsense  in  his  talk, 
never  a  story  that  was  not  suited  to  the  most 
refined  company.  His  originality  was  refreshing 
and  his  talk  exciting.  His  droll  sayings  were 
irresistibly  funny.  Intellectually  keen,  widely 
read,  a  lover  of  nature,  familiar  with  art,  and 
animated  by  an  intense  purpose,  he  always  shone 
in  society. 

His  strongest  friends,  were  those  whom  he 
won  in  conversation.  The  teachers  who  came 
near  enough  to  him  to  know  these  charms  were 
devoted  to  him.  Only  those  who  did  not  know 
his  delightful  personality  were  prejudiced  against 
him. 

HIS  FRIENDS 

A  man's  character  and  career  are  largely 
influenced  by  his  friendships.  Educational  peo- 
ple gain  much  power  when  they  have  great  men 
and  women  for  their  friends.  If  Mr.  Mann  had 
not  had  many  /influential  friends,  he  could  not 
have  been  so  successful  as  the  head  of  the  school 
system  of  Massachusetts. 

Dr.  Henry  Barnard,  one  of  the  great  Ameri- 
can educators,  was  one  of  Mr.  Mann's  warmest 
friends.  The  two  worked  together  for  many 


HORACE    MANN  47 

years,  Mr.  Barnard  in  Connecticut  and  Rhode 
Island,  and  Mr.  Mann  in  Massachusetts. 

Another  friend,  Dr.  Samuel  G.  Howe,  of 
Boston,  whom  Dr.  Barnard  places  second  only 
to  Horace  Mann  among  American  educators, 
had  an  international  reputation.  After  gradu- 
ating from  the  Harvard  Medical  School,  in  1824, 
he  went  to  Greece,  and  in  the  revolution  there 
held  the  position  of  surgeon -in -chief  of  the 
Greek  army  and  navy.  In  1827  he  returned  to 
America,  raised  $60,000  in  New  York  and  New 
England,  and  then  went  back  to  Greece  to  dis- 
tribute it  personally  among  the  sufferers.  He 
was  called  "  the  Lafayette  of  the  Greek  Revo- 
lution." After  his  final  return  to  the  United 
States,  in  1833,  he  devoted  his  life  to  developing 
institutions  for  the  feeble-minded,  the  deaf,  and 
the  blind. 

Edward  Everett,  one  of  the  most  eloquent 
American  orators,  a  national  congressman  and 
senator,  governor  of  Massachusetts,  and  pres- 
ident of  Harvard  University,  was  as  influential 
a  friend  as  any  man  could  have.  He  was  only 
two  years  older  than  Mr.  Mann.  Their  friend- 
ship began  early  and  lasted  through  life. 

Josiah  Quincy,  mayor  of  Boston  at  the  time 
of  the  controversy  with  the  Boston  schoolmas- 
ters, was  a  man  of  wealth  and  of  high  political 
and  social  standing.  He  was  Mr.  Mann's  warm 


48     GREAT  AMERICAN  EDUCATORS 

friend  for  many  years,  and  showed  his  con- 
fidence in  him  by  giving  him  $1,500  to  be  used 
as  he  chose  for  public  school  education. 

Charles  Sumner,  the  great  senator  from 
Massachusetts,  was  such  a  friend  to  Mr.  Mann 
that  he  gave  the  state  treasurer  $5,000  to  be 
used  for  normal  schools.  He  was  one  of  twenty 
men  who  contributed  money  to  the  state  as  a 
testimony  of  their  faith  in  Horace  Mann's  edu- 
cational plans. 

IN  THE  WEST 

Two  sad  pictures  in  America  are  those  of  an 
educator  without  a  position  at  fifty-six  years  of 
age,  and  a  politician  without  a  place  at  any  time. 
Mr.  Mann  was  in  this  double  predicament  when 
he  left  Congress  and  was  defeated  for  governor. 
He  was  tired  of  politics,  and  was  not  happy  in 
Massachusetts. 

He  was  physically  an  old  man  at  fifty-six.  He 
had  injured  his  health  when  fitting  for  college, 
and  the  strain  under  which  he  always  worked  did 
not  improve  it.  He  was  not  thrifty,  and  money 
considerations  played  an  unimportant  part  in  his 
life.  He  never  had  a  large  income,  and  did  not 
lay  by  much  of  what  he  received.  Honest  in 
every  fiber  of  his  being,  self-sacrificing  to  a  fault, 
he  had  subordinated  his  personal  prosperity  to 
every  other  consideration.  To  have  no  estab- 


HORACE    MANN  49 

lished  income  at  his  age  was  a  serious  matter. 
Had  he  waited  a  little  while,  he  would  have  re- 
ceived high  political  honors  from  Massachusetts, 
or  he  might  have  had  distinguished  educational 
recognition.  Waiting,  however,  was  not  one  of 
Mr.  Mann's  characteristics. 

In  1852,  Ohio  was,  to  Horace  Mann,  the 
most  attractive  state  in  the  Union.  She  was 
already  the  third  largest  state.  Indiana,  Illi- 
nois, and  the  states  to  the  west  had  not  risen 
to  power.  Men  in  Ohio  like  Joshua  R.  Giddings, 
Salmon  P.  Chase,  and  John  Sherman  were  mak- 
ing a  national  reputation.  The  men  whom  Mr. 
Mann  most  admired  in  Congress  were  from  this 
state.  He  saw  Ohio's  future;  he  believed  in  the 
West. 

To  few  men  could  it  have  been  so  much  of  a 
sacrifice  to  leave  Massachusetts,  her  people  and 
her  institutions,  but  he  had  said  years  before 
that  the  next  generation  was  to  be  his  client. 
His  work  for  the  common  schools  in  New  Eng- 
land was  finished.  Now  his  thoughts  turned 
to  educational  work  in  the  Great  West. 

In  this  state  of  mind  he  received  an  urgent  re- 
quest to  become  president  of  Antioch  College,  a 
new  denominational  institution  at  Yellow  Springs, 
Ohio,  not  far  from  Cincinnati.  To  accept  this 
position  was  a  mistake  from  the  ordinary  stand- 
point. The  college  was  poor,  with  insufficient 


50  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

means  for  paying  even  its  president's  salary.  But 
Horace  Mann  had  many  times  shown  himself 
independent  of  the  popular  judgment  of  unprof- 
itable undertakings,  and  he  was  glad  of  the 
opportunity  of  influence  offered  him  at  Antioch. 

The  trustees  made  things  very  uncomfortable 
for  him.  There  were  no  comforts  for  himself 
and  his  family,  and  no  companionships  such  as  he 
had  been  accustomed  to,  but  all  these  conditions 
were  favorable  to  his  greater  usefulness. 

For  more  than  twenty  years  he  had  been 
fighting  opposition,  and  his  victories  had  made 
him  famous.  Now  opposition  forced  him  to 
his  best  endeavors  in  training  the  young  people 
to  noble  thought  and  effort.  For  more  than 
twenty  years  he  had  been  tearing  down  in 
order  to  build  upon  the  ruins.  He  had  antag- 
onized everything  that  he  had  found  in  the 
educational,  religious,  social,  and  political  condi- 
tions of  Massachusetts.  He  had,  indeed,  sug- 
gested something  to  take  the  place  of  whatever 
he  condemned,  but  the  tendency  of  his  influence 
had  been  toward  destruction.  In  the  West 
there  were  no  old  things  that  needed  tearing 
down,  and  he  gave  himself  to  the  work  of  build- 
ing up.  He  strengthened  the  faith  and  inspired 
the  devotion  of  the  young  men  and  women.  His 
voice  was  heard  everywhere,  and  always  for  the 
best  things. 


HORACE    MANN  51 

In  the  six  years  that  he  inspired  the  educa- 
tional forces  of  the  West  from  Antioch  College, 
he  influenced  directly  and  indirectly  thousands 
of  youth.  All  through  the  West  to-day  are 
leaders  of  thought,  men  of  character  and  force 
in  every  good  endeavor,  who  owe  their  inspira- 
tion for  scholarship  and  for  noble  living  to 
Horace  Mann. 

His  death  on  August  2,  1859,  closed  a  life  of 
sixty-three  years,  full  of  unselfish,  untiring  en- 
deavor, whose  influence  has  not  yet  ceased  to  be 
felt.  The  keynote  to  his  whole  life  was  given  in 
his  last  public  utterance,— 

"BE  ASHAMED  TO  DIE  UNTIL  YOU  HAVE  WON 
SOME  VICTORY  FOR  HUMANITY." 


MARY   LYON 

THE   FOUNDER  OF   SEMINARIES   FOR  GIRLS 


MARY  LYON 
AGE  34 


MARY   LYON 

THE  FOUNDER  OF  SEMINARIES  FOR  GIRLS 
1797-1849 

Mary  Lyon  is  the  maiden  mother  of  educa- 
tional privileges  for  American  women.  She  is 
the  queen  among  teachers. 

She  is  not  distinguished  because  she  had 
learning;  for  tens  of  thousands  of  women  in  the 
United  States  to-day  have  had  better  school 
advantages  than  she  had.  It  is  not  because  she 
wrote  great  books;  for  she  never  wrote  a  book 
or  an  article  for  magazine  or  paper,  and 
thousands  of  women  in  the  country  are  doing 
both  better  than  she  could  have  done  them.  It 
is  not  because  she  made  great  addresses;  for 
many  women  now  do  more  public  speaking  in  a 
year  than  she  did  in  her  whole  lifetime.  Her 
salary  was  no  gauge  of  her  power  as  a  teacher; 
for  the  highest  sum  she  ever  received  was  $260  a 
year,  not  a  tenth  of  what  many  teachers  receive 
now.  It  costs  as  much  to  support  a  pauper  in 
most  states. 

Why,  then,  was  Mary  Lyon  such  a  remark- 
able and  distinguished  woman? 

55 


56  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

Fifty  years  ago  there  was  not  a  college  on 
this  continent  where  a  girl  could  obtain  a  liberal 
education;  to-day  there  are  almost  as  many 
young  women  as  men  in  college. 

Sixty  years  ago  there  was  only  one. endowed 
seminary  for  girls,  and  no  normal  school  on  the 
continent;  now  there  are  hundreds  of  colleges, 
seminaries,  and  normal  schools.  That  single 
seminary  was  established  by  Mary  Lyon  at 
South  Hadley,  Massachusetts,  in  the  autumn  of 
1837.  It  was  named  Mount  Holyoke  Seminary, 
from  the  beautiful  mountain  a  few  miles  away. 
Miss  Lyon  solicited  about  $60,000  with  which 
to  purchase  the  land,  and  to  erect  and  furnish 
the  buildings.  With  this  endowment  there  was 
no  rent  to  pay,  and  the  cost  of  education  was 
made  as  small  as  possible. 

Attempts  had  been  made  before  to  provide 
educational  opportunities  for  young  women. 
In  the  cities  there  were  some  good  private 
schools  for  girls,  the  most  noted  of  which  was 
Mrs.  Emma  Willard's  school  at  Troy,  New 
York.  In  such  schools  the  expense  was  so 
great  that  only  the  children  of  well-to-do  people 
could  attend. 

As  early  as  1790  four  girls  from  the  town 
were  admitted  to  the  academy  at  Atkinson, 
New  Hampshire,  and  others  were  admitted  to 
the  Leicester  academy  in  Massachusetts.  In 


MARY    LYON  57 

1803  an  academy  was  opened  at  Bradford, 
Massachusetts,  and  young  women  were  admitted. 
After  a  long  struggle  for  success,  this  academy, 
in  1836,  excluded  boys,  and  became  a  girls' 
school.  This  step  was  made  practicable  by 
the  interest  which  Mary  Lyon  had  aroused  in 
the  education  of  girls.  There  were  other  acad- 
emies, but  none  of  them  had  any  endowment  or 
adequate  equipment.  They  were  neither  per- 
manent nor  successful.  They  were  very  ex- 
pensive, and  their  managers  had  no  conception 
of  the  requirements  for  a  liberal  education. 

Miss  Lyon's  seminary  made  possible  for  the 
first  time,  the  general,  liberal  education  of  girls. 
It  is  not  too  much  to  say,  therefore,  that  the 
seminary  life  of  young  women,  and  their  college 
life  as  well,  dates  from  the  opening  of  Mount 
Holyoke  Seminary,  November  8,  1837,  and  the 
beginning  was  due  to  Mary  Lyon. 

HER   BIRTHPLACE 

On  February  28,  1797,  Mary  Lyon  was  born 
in  the  small  town  of  Buckland,  in  western  Massa- 
chusetts. So  few  people  lived  in  that  neighbor- 
hood that  it  went  by  the  name  of  "  No-town," 
even  after  it  had  been  organized  as  the  town  of 
Buckland.  The  larger  town  of  Ashfield  was 
very  near  her  home,  and  there  the  family  went 
to  church  and  had  their  friendships. 


58  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

So  far  as  can  be  learned,  Mary  Lyon  is  the 
only  person  born  in  Buckland  who  has  attained 
eminence,  but  Ashfield  has  been  the  birthplace 
and  residence  of  many  prominent  men.  William 
Cullen  Bryant  and  James  Russell  Lowell,  the 
famous  poets,  and  George  William  Curtis,  the 
brilliant  writer  and  speaker,  were  identified  with 
this  town.  Charles  Eliot  Norton,  of  Harvard 
University,  and  President  G.  Stanley  Hall,  of 
Clark  University,  were  born  there. 

It  is  remarkable  that  Horace  Mann  and  Mary 
Lyon,  the  greatest  man  and  the  greatest  woman 
in  the  history  of  American  education,  were  born 
within  eight  months  of  each  other  in  the  same 
state.  It  often  happens  thus.  David  P.  Page 
and  John  D.  Philbrick,  two  leaders  in  education, 
were  born  within  a  few  miles  of  each  other  in 
southern  New  Hampshire.  In  statesmanship, 
we  find  George  Washington  and  Patrick  Henry 
born  in  the  same  state,  and  not  far  apart  in  point 
of  time.  In  literature,  Longfellow  and  Holmes 
were  born  within  two  years  of  Whittier,  and 
within  seventy  miles  of  his  birthplace. 

The  farm  of  Aaron  Lyon,  Mary's  father,  was 
very  hilly,  and  was  situated  near  the  foot  of  a 
small  mountain.  It  was  always  called  "the 
mountain  farm,"  and  through  life  Mary  spoke 
of  it  as  "  My  mountain  home."  Great  men 


MARY    LYON  59 

and  women  almost  always  love  their  childhood 
home,  and  often  write  about  it.  This  was 
especially  true  of  Mary  Lyon. 

CHILDHOOD 

Mary  Lyon  was  the  fifth  among  seven  chil- 
dren, of  whom  only  one  was  a  boy.  The  mother 
was  an  earnest  woman,  and  the  father  one  of 
the  gentlest  of  men.  Their  home,  a  very  hum- 
ble place,  was  less  than  a  mile  and  a  half  distant 
from  the  homes  of  both  of  the  grandparents. 
Mary  was  a  quiet  little  girl  and  was  much  petted. 
She  was  a  great  favorite  with  her  father,  who 
often  joined  in  her  plays.  It  was  a  terrible  grief 
to  her  when,  on  December  21,  1802,  before  she 
was  six  years  old,  this  kind  father  died.  It  was 
such  a  shock  to  the  child,  that  she  did  not  get 
over  it  for  many  years. 

To  the  mother  this  sad  loss  meant  a  struggle 
for  a  living.  The  grandparents  were  old,  .and 
could  not  help  her.  Mr.  Lyon  left  a  little  money 
that  he  had  saved  by  years  of  hard  work  and 
careful  economy.  The  widow  did  not  use  this, 
but  put  it  at  interest.  She  divided  it  into  seven 
equal  parts,  so  that  each  child,  when  twenty-one 
years  old,  might  receive  a  share  of  the  father's 
legacy.  There  was  very  little  of  this  money, 
but  the  mother  guarded  it  well. 

Mrs.   Lyon,  with  her  six  girls  and  the  one 


60  GREAT   AMERICAN   EDUCATORS 

boy,  now  thirteen  years  old,  carried  on  the  farm. 
She  got  up  early  and  worked  late,  and  each 
child  had  to  work  hard  to  help  support  the 
family.  It  was  a  wild,  romantic  farm,  "  made 
more  to  feast  the  soul  than  to  feed  the  body." 
Their  garden  of  pinks,  peonies,  and  roses  always 
looked  neat  and  thrifty,  for  the  mother  said  it 
cost  only  a  little  extra  work  to  have  a  beautiful 
garden.  They  had  fruit  in  abundance. 

There  was  never  a  cent  for  children's  luxuries 
in  this  fatherless  home.  They  had  no  candy 
and  no  store  toys,  but  Mary  said  in  later  years: 
"  No  such  strawberries  ever  grew  anywhere  else, 
never  such  rareripes,  so  large  and  so  yellow,  and 
never  were  peaches  so  delicious  and  so  fair  as 
grew  on  that  favored  farm." 

Children  can  be  very  happy  without  peanuts 
and  pickled  limes,  if  they  know  how  to  enjoy 
what  they  have,  as  the  seven  little  Lyons  did. 
Everything  about  the  farm  held  attractions  for 
them.  Mary  wrote  long  afterwards :  '  The 
apples  contrived  to  ripen  before  all  others,  so  as 
to  meet  in  sweet  fellowship  the  peaches  and 
plums,  to  entertain  aunts  and  cousins.  I  can 
now  see  that  mountain  home  with  its  sweet 
rivulet,  finding  its  way  among  rocks  and  cliffs, 
and  hillocks,  and  deep  craggy  dells." 

It  was  great  sport  to  climb  the  steep  hill 
back  of  the  house,  and  to  see  who  would  first 


MARY    LYON  6 1 

plant  foot  on  the  high  rock  at  the  top.  It  is 
more  fun  to  get  toughened  by  racing  up  a  hill 
than  to  be  drawn  about  by  a  harnessed  dog  or 
goat.  These  little  girls  and  their  brother  grew 
strong  in  their  out-door  life. 

Mary's  sisters  married,  one  by  one,  and  left 
home.  When  she  was  thirteen,  her  mother 
married  again  and  moved  away,  taking  the  two 
youngest  children  with  her.  Mary  stayed  on 
the  farm  and  kept  house  for  her  brother,  who 
was  now  twenty-three  years  old.  She  was  paid 
one  dollar  a  week.  After  a  year  he  married, 
and  Mary  continued  to  live  with  him,  when  she 
was  not  teaching  or  going  to  school.  She  earned 
money  by  spinning  and  weaving.  Two  little 
girls  were  born  in  her  brother's  home,  and  Mary 
loved  them  dearly.  When  she  was  twenty-one, 
her  brother  and  his  family  moved  to  western 
New  York,  and  the  loved  home  was  given  up* 
This  was  the  greatest  grief  that  had  come  to 
Mary  since  her  father  died.  Her  sisters,  her 
mother,  and  now  her  brother  and  his  dear  little  ' 
children  had  moved  away.  There  was  no  tell- 
ing when  she  would  see  any  of  the  family 
again.  The  beautiful,  wild,  romantic  home  was 
gone  forever. 

Her  feelings  may  be  understood  by  this 
stanza  from  an  old  song,  which  she  gave  her 
brother's  wife  as  they  went  away  : 


-J-s 


c> 


•a -a 

ss 

&  a 

s< 


£ 

"S* 


"Bid 


._ 


o 

~.  .c 

o    o 


JU    « 

t=l        *•» 

S   Oi 


O 


w 


w 


s 


W 
O 

P-, 
O 


CO    C8   W    CJ   CB 


A    spider   made   a  web. 
He   tried   to   catch  .a   fly. 
What   does   a   spider   eat? 
What   does   a   spider   do? 
A    spider   has   eight   legs. 
The    spider   has   eight   eyes. 
Spiders   have   black   dresses. 
Spiders   have   brown   dresses. 

NOTE. — The  children  will  be  greatly  interested  in  being  told  of  the  habits 
of  spiders,  and  in  pictures  of  the  trap-door  spiders  and  mason  spiders. 

A   PAGE   FROM   A  MODERN   PRIMER 


64  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

"Not  one  sigh  shall  tell  my  story, 

Not  one  tear  my  cheek  shall  stain; 
Silent  grief  shall  be  my  glory, 

Grief  that  stoops  not  to  complain." 


THE  DISTRICT  SCHOOL 

It  was  almost  a  century  ago  that  Mary  Lyon 
first  went  to  school.  Children  did  not  learn 
much  at  school  in  those  days.  A  child  did  not 
learn  to  write  or  to  read  easily  by  himself  before 
he  was  ten  or  twelve  years  old.  He  learned  to 
add,  subtract,  multiply,  and  divide,  and  to  spell 
some  hard  words.  He  did  not  study  geography 
and  many  other  subjects  that  are  taught  every- 
where now. 

A  child  can  read  better  now  when  he  has 
been  in  school  two  years  than  one  could  then, 
after  four  or  five  years.  There  were  never 
more  than  three  books  to  read  at  school,'  a 
primer,  a  reader,  and  a  higher  reader.  The 
higher  reader  was  as  good  as  any  that  have 
been  made  since,  but  the  lower  ones  were 
strange  kind  of  reading  books.  The  primer 
looks  very  queer  now. 

Children  did  not  learn  to  write  well  in  the 
district  schools.  If  they  wished,  they  could  take 
special  lessons  in  a  private  writing  school.  Men 
went  from  town  to  town  and  taught  writing  in 
evening  classes.  Mary  Lyon  wrote  so  poorly 


MARY   LYON  65 

that  she  went  to  a  writing  school  to  improve 
her  penmanship  after  she  had  been  teaching 
several  years. 

To-day  the  schools  have  language  lessons  to 
teach  children  to  use  good  language  while  they 
are  young,  but  Mary  Lyon  had  no  one  to  correct 
her  when  she  pronounced  words  wrong  and 
used  expressions  that  were  ungrammatical.  It 
is  very  hard  to  learn  to  talk  well  if  one  uses 
incorrect  expressions  in  youth,  and  Mary  Lyon 
was  twenty-five  years  old  before  she  could  stop 
using  some  ungrammatical  phrases. 

SCHOOL  LIFE 

The  little  country  schoolhouse  was  a  mile 
from  the  Lyon  home.  As  soon  as  Mary  could 
walk  that  distance  she  went  to  school  with  her 
sisters  during  the  summer.  When  she  was  seven 
the  schoolhouse  was  moved  a  mile  farther  away, 
and  she  could  seldom  go. 

When  Mary  was  about  ten  years  old  she  went 
to  live  with  a  family  in  Ashfield  during  term 
time.  She  worked  for  her'  board,  and  in  this 
way  was  able  to  go  to  school  again.  She  was 
quick  to  learn,  and  did  so  well  with  her  studies 
that  the  teachers  always  liked  her.  No  other 
child  in  any  of  these  schools  committed  the  words 
of  the  book  to  memory  so  fast  and  so  accurately 
as  she.  She  learned  in  four  days  everything  in 


66  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

a  grammar  that  the  class  was  a  term  in  learning. 
Arithmetic  was  as  easy  for  her  as  grammar. 

When  she  was  a  child  she  used  so  many  words 
to  tell  anything  and  talked  so  rapidly  that  it  was 
often  impossible  to  know  what  she  said.  It 
sometimes  caused  laughter  in  school  to  hear  her 
rattling  off  words  from  which  the  scholars  could 
get  no  meaning. 

Behind  the  schoolhouse  in  Ashfield  stood  an 
old  beech  tree,  and  from  its  low  crooked  limb 
she  used  to  preach  to  her  schoolmates  at  recess 
time.  She  could  talk  so  interestingly  that  they 
left  their  play  to  listen  to  her. 

A  favorite  dialogue  in  school  represented 
Moses  in  the  bulrushes.  Mary  made  a  cradle 
of  rushes  for  a  little  fellow  in  the  school,  and 
she  played  the  mother  and  watched  over  him. 
Long  years  afterward,  when  she  was  fifty  years 
old,  at  a  dinner  given  in  her  honor  in  Spring- 
field, Massachusetts,  a  noted  preacher  surprised 
her  and  delighted  the  company  by  saying  that 
he  was  the  little  Moses  that  Mary  Lyon  mothered 
so  long  before. 

At  sixteen  she  began*  teaching  school  near 
Shelburne  Falls,  Massachusetts,  for  seventy-five 
cents  a  week  and  her  board.  School  kept  only 
twenty  weeks  in  a  year,  so  that  her  salary  was 
not  more  than  fifteen  dollars  for  a  year's  teach- 
ing. She  saved  every  cent  of  this,  and  managed 


MARY   LYON  67 

to  earn  more  money  by  various  kinds  of  work, 
such  as  spinning  and  weaving.  When  she  was 
twenty  years  old  she  had  saved  enough  money 
to  enable  her  to  enter  the  Sanderson  Academy 
at  Ashfield.  This  was  the  first  good  school  that 
she  attended. 

Her  money  was  soon  gone,  but  she  would 
not  give  up  school.  She  traded  all  the  bedding, 
table  linen,  and  other  little  things  that  her 
brother  had  left  her  when  he  moved  to  New 
York,  to  the  boarding-house  keeper  for  room 
and  board.  In  this  way  she  was  able  to  stay  at 
school  a  little  longer.  With  all  these  hardships, 
she  did  not  touch  a  cent  of  her  share  in  the 
money  left  by  her  father  until  she  was  twenty- 
four  years  old.  Then  she  used  a  part  of  it  to 
complete  her  education.  She  thought  it  safe  to 
spend  the  money  then,  because  she  knew  she 
could  earn  her  living  by  teaching. 

A  girl  who  made  such  sacrifices  for  study 
wasted  no  time.  She  often  slept  only  four 
hours  a  night,  and  she  studied  every  wakeful 
moment  except  when  eating.  She  knew  always 
that  her  scant  funds  would  quickly  become  ex- 
hausted and  she  must  leave  school.  She  did 
not  know,  however,  that  she  ought  to  sleep 
longer  and  take  more  exercise,  for  she  did  not 
study  physiology.  Her  health  suffered  for  life 
because  she  studied  too  hard. 


68  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

She  was  the  most  brilliant  classical  scholar 
ever  in  that  academy,  it  is  said,  and  every 
school  in  the  country  around  wanted  her  for  a 
teacher. 

AS  A  TEACHER 

It  has  already  been  said  that  Mary  Lyon 
began  teaching  at  sixteen.  She  taught  just 
long  enough  each  year  to  earn  a  term's  ex- 
penses at  some  academy.  In  this  way  she 
taught  every  year  until  she  had  completed  her 
course  of  study.  When  she  was  twenty-five 
years  old  she  taught  as  assistant  in  the  Ashfield 
Academy,  and  the  next  year  in  the  Adams 
Female  Academy  at  Derry,  New  Hampshire. 
She  took  special  studies  with  the  professor  of 
chemistry  at  Amherst  College,  that  she  might 
be  able  to  illustrate  by  experiments  the  lessons 
in  chemistry  and  physics.  This  was  an  unusual 
thing  to  do  in  those  days,  but  Miss  Lyon  was  a 
genuine  teacher. 

In  the  winter  Miss  Lyon  taught  a  private 
school  for  girls  at  her  childhood  home  in  Buck- 
land.  When  she  opened  the  school  she  expected 
only  a  few  children,  but  to  her  surprise  twenty- 
five  girls  appeared,  and  the  number  soon  in- 
creased to  fifty.  The  school  was  continued  for  six 
years.  It  met  in  the  village  hall,  but  the  place 
was  soon  outgrown,  and  many  of  the  recitations 


MARY   LYON  69 

were  held  in  the  teacher's  rooms.  The  two 
leading  features  of  this  school  were  the  slight 
expense  to  the  pupils,  and  the  remarkable 
influence  exerted  upon  them.  For  the  first 
time  in  the  history  of  America  there  was  a  first- 
class  school  which  girls  of  comparatively  poor 
families  could  attend. 

There  was  still,  at  this  time,  a  prejudice 
against  schools  for  girls.  Prominent'  persons 
in  every  community  thought  it  wrong  for  girls 
to  have  the  same  advantages  in  education  as 
boys.  The  first  seminaries  for  girls  in  this 
country  were  at  Newbury,  Massachusetts,  and 
at  Derry,  New  Hampshire.  Mary  Lyon  studied 
at  both  of  these  institutions,  and  afterwards 
taught  at  Derry  for  about  five  years.  In  1828 
the  school  was  given  up.  There  were  not 
enough  girls  in  all  New  England  who  could 
be  induced  to  go  to  a  seminary,  to  make  it 

Pay- 

The  principal  of  the  Derry  school,  Miss 
Grant,  went  to  Ipswich,  Massachusetts,  and  Miss 
Lyon  taught  with  her  there  for  the  next  six 
years.  During  two  of  those  years  she  acted  as 
principal. 

Such  a  school  as  this  could  not  be  kept  up 
unless  a  sum  of  money  was  provided  sufficient 
to  pay  for  the  rent  of  buildings.  Miss  Grant 
and  Miss  Lyon  tried  very  hard  to  raise  money 


70  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

for  their  school,  so  that  the  teachers  would  not 
have  to  bear  the  extra  expense  of  rent. 

Miss  Lyon  went  to  Boston,  and  made  her  first 
speech  before  a  company  of  prominent  men  and 
women  in  a  private  parlor.  Rufus  Choate,  an 
eloquent  lawyer  and  statesman,  was  one  of  the 
audience.  She  told  them  of  the  great  need  of 
having  a  seminary  for  girls,  like  the  academies 
for  boys,  where  all  the  buildings  should  be  paid 
for  by  friends  of  education.  They  were  greatly 
interested,  and  thought  something  ought  to  be 
done.  Butwhen  Mr.  Choate  and  the  others  tried 
to  get  their  rich  friends  to  give  money  for  this 
purpose,  they  did  not  see  the  use  of  educating 
girls,  and  Miss  Grant  and  Miss  Lyon  had  to  give 
up  their  school  at  Ipswich. 

A  NEW  SEMINARY 

While  Miss  Lyon  was  trying  to  get  the 
wealthy  people  of  eastern  Massachusetts  to  raise 
money  for  Ipswich,  the  poor  people  of  western 
Massachusetts  were  trying  to  get  her  to  come 
back  there.  She  had  given  up  her  winter 
private  school  at  Buckland  for  the  two  years 
that  she  took  Miss  Grant's  place  at  Ipswich,  and 
the  clergymen  and  the  farmers  were  unhappy  at 
its  discontinuance.  They  did  not  know  how 
important  it  was  until  it  was  closed.  A  move- 
ment was  begun  at  once  to  bring  Miss  Lyon 


MARY   LYON  71 

back  for  a  school  all  the  year  round.  More  than  a 
hundred  ministers  began  to  talk  and  preach  and 
pray  about  their  school.  When  Miss  Lyon  saw 
how  earnest  they  were,  she  began  to  make  her 
plans.  She  never  doubted  that  just  such  a 
school  as  she  wanted  could  and  would  be  es- 
tablished. 

Miss  Lyon  said  it  should  not  cost  a  girl  more 
than  sixty  dollars  a  year  at  her  school.  This 
should  pay  for  tuition,  room,  board,  lights,  fuel, 
and  washing.  She  said  that  any  girl  who  was 
bright  and  ambitious  should  have  the  chance  to 
get  as  good  an  education  for  sixty  dollars  as 
could  be  had  in  any  school  in  the  country. 
Before  this  time  it  had  cost  girls  almost  twice 
as  much  as  boys ;  in  her  school  it  should  cost 
but  little  more  than  half  as  much. 

How  the  other  school  people  laughed  at  this 
idea!  It  was  ridiculous  to  talk  of  giving  a  first- 
class  education,  board  and  all,  for  sixty  dollars. 
It  is  no  wonder  that  they  laughed. 

Mary  Lyon  never  forgot  her  own  struggle  for 
an  education.  She  did  not  regret  that  she  had  to 
work  hard,  but  that  she  had  to  stop  going  to 
school  while  she  worked,  and  that  it  took  her 
more  than  two  months  to  earn  money  enough 
to  go  to  school  one  month.  Those  might  laugh 
who  wished,  but  she  was  determined  to  carry 
out  her  plan. 


72  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

With  the  help  of  the  earnest  men  of  western 
Massachusetts  she  raised  over  $60,000,  mostly 
among  people  who  were  comparatively  poor. 
They  bought  a  beautiful  hillside  in  South  Had- 
ley,  built  a  suitable  and  convenient  building,  and 
put  into  it  as  good  helps  for  teaching  as  were  in 
any  boys'  academy  in  the  country. 

Miss  Lyon  said  that  all  the  teachers  must 
make  sacrifices  for  the  girls.  Her  own  salary 
should  never  be  above  two  hundred  dollars,  with 
her  board,  and  no  teacher  could  expect  more 
than  she  had.  Could  good  teachers  be  secured 
for  such  a  small  salary?  Indeed,  any  first-class 
teacher  was  ready  to  come.  The  girls,  too,  must 
help  reduce  the  expenses.  It  would  require 
much  help  to  run  a  boarding-house  for  a  hun- 
dred girls,  but  if  each  one  took  hold  and  did  a 
part  of  the  household  work,  a  great  expense 
could  be  saved.  Miss  Lyon  announced  that  each 
girl,  rich  or  poor,  must  do  her  share  of  the  work. 
This  idea  was  ridiculed. 

"  No  girls  will  go  to  school  to  do  house- 
work," shouted  the  critics.  Would  they  come? 
That  remained  to  be  seen.  Mount  Holyoke 
Seminary  was  opened,  and  Miss  Lyon  awaited 
the  result. 


MARY  LYON  73 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHARACTER 

Through  her  girlhood  Mary  Lyon  felt  keenly 
that  she  had  no  good  early  education.  She  did 
not  go  to  a  really  good  school  until  she  was 
twenty.  Her  home  was  broken  up  when  she 
was  fifteen,  and  she  missed  a  mother's  care  and 
training.  No  one  showed  her  how  to  dress 
neatly  or  to  take  care  of  her  clothes.  Much  of 
the  talk  that  she  heard  was  ungrammatical. 

When  she  began  to  go  to  good  schools  the 
teachers  were  constantly  correcting  her  for  un- 
grammatical expressions,  and  complaining  that 
she  was  a  very  poor  writer.  Her  schoolmates 
made  her  unhappy  by  telling  her  that  she  did 
not  know  how  to  tie  a  bow  or  make  her  clothes 
look  well. 

It  is  very  trying  to  be  told,  all  the  time,  of 
one's  faults.  No  one  ever  told  Mary  Lyon 
that  she  used  slang,  that  she  had  not  a  perfect 
lesson,  or  that  she  was  lacking  in  goodness  and 
gentleness.  It  was  none  the  less  unpleasant  to 
be  scolded  about  minor  matters. 

As  soon  as  she  knew  her  failings  she  remedied 
them.  She  watched  herself  until  she  was  rid  of 
the,"  bad  grammar  "  of  her  childhood  country 
days.  She  looked  after  her  wardrobe  until  she 
was  a  model  of  good  taste.  She  gave  one  entire 
long  vacation  to  lessons  in  penmanship,  and 


74  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

drilled  herself  until  she  could  write  well.  No 
sacrifice  was  too  great  for  perfecting  herself  in 
any  good  habit  or  work. 

When  Miss  Lyon  had  conquered  her  weak- 
nesses she  had  great  respect  for  herself,  and 
knew  that  she  had  accomplished  more  than  the 
ordinary  woman.  She  wanted  to  do  for  other 
girls  what  she  had  done  for  herself. 

Until  she  was  thirty-seven  years  old,  Miss 
Lyon  leaned  upon  others.  When  one  is  told 
often  of  her  failings,  she  either  gives  up  trying 
to  do  anything  or  to  be  anybody,  or  else  depends 
upon  those  who  assert  their  superiority  by  cor- 
recting her.  Miss  Lyon  was  dependent  upon 
those  who  were  her  superiors  in  habits  and  train- 
ing until  she  perfected  herself.  In  all  her 
teaching  she  had  leaned  upon  Miss  Grant,  the 
principal  at  Derry  and  Ipswich.  It  was  a  great 
surprise  to  Miss  Grant  and  to  her  other  friends, 
when,  at  thirty-seven,  she  announced  her  inten- 
tion of  establishing  a  large  school  which  should 
be  the  best  school  for  girls  in  the  United 
States. 

They  could  not  believe  that  timid  Mary 
Lyon  had  been  in  conference  with  Rufus  Choate, 
United  States  senator  from  Massachusetts,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Todd,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Blagdon,  and  other 
prominent  men  who  were  interested  in  educa- 
tion. It  was  not  easy  to  realize  that  Mary  Lyon 


MARY   LYON  75 

who  used  to  go  without  her  collar,  and  with  a 
ribbon  wrong  side  out,  was  meeting  men  and 
women  of  great  wealth  and  high  social  standing 
in  Boston,  and  was  telling  them  how  girls 
should  be  educated.  When  she  won  confidence 
in  herself,  Miss  Lyon  was  convinced  that  her 
ideas  of  education  were  superior  to  a-11  others  of 
her  day.  She  spent  three  years  in  convincing 
other  people  of  their  superiority. 

Thus  Mary  Lyon  developed  character  and 
power. 

MOUNT  HOLYOKE  SEMINARY 

In  the  autumn  of  1837  the  Seminary  was 
opened.  In  three  years  Miss  Lyon  had  secured 
all  necessary  funds — $68,500 — for  the  purchase 
of  the  beautiful  site  at  South  Hadley,  and  for 
buildings  to  accommodate  eighty-five  students. 
More  than  three  hundred  young  women  applied 
for  admission.  Miss  Lyon  resorted  to  all  possi- 
ble means  to  accommodate  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five,  and  then  had  to  turn  away  more 
than  two  hundred  who  were  begging  to  get  in. 
After  three  years  the  buildings  were  en- 
larged to  accommodate  two  hundred  and  fifty 
students. 

The  young  women  were  not  from  western 
Massachusetts  alone.  They  came  from  twenty 
different  states — there  were  only  about  that 


76  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

number  of  states  in  the  Union  then — and  from 
several  foreign  countries.  Nor  were  they  poor 
girls  who  knew  nothing  of  more  expensive  and 
"better"  schools.  The  first  year  there  was  a 
large  class  of  seniors  made  up  of  girls  who  came 
from  other  seminaries  and  private  schools. 
Many  were  from  wealthy  homes.  The  intel- 
lectual tone  and  social  standing  of  the  school 
were  high.  Its  success  was  assured  from  the 
first  day. 

In  the  twelve  years  that  Miss  Lyon  was 
there,  there  were  2,324  young  women  in  the 
Seminary.  She  was  right  in  thinking  that  such 
a  school  was  needed. 

TEACHING,  WOMAN'S  IDEAL 

Miss  Lyon  believed  that  every  woman  should 
be  educated  to  teach.  She  said  :  'Teaching 
is  really  the  business  of  almost  every  useful 
woman.  No  woman  is  well  educated  who  has 
not  all  the  acquisitions  necessary  for  a  good 
teacher.  She  needs  thorough  mental  culture,  a 
well-balanced  character,  a  benevolent  heart,  an 
ability  to  communicate  knowledge  and  apply  it 
to  practice,  an  acquaintance  with  human  nature, 
and  the  power  of  controlling  the  minds  of  others. 
Women  teachers  should  not  expect  to  be 
fully  compensated  for  their  services,  unless  it  be 
by  kindness  and  gratitude.  There  is  a  large 


MARY   LYON 
AGE  50 


78  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

number  of  educated  women,  who  will  make  the 
best  teachers,  who  can  be  allured  much  more  by 
respectful  attention,  by  kindness  and  gratitude, 
by  suitable  schoolrooms  and  apparatus,  and 
other  facilities  for  rendering  their  labors  pleas- 
ant and  successful,  than  they  can  be  by  the  pros- 
pect of  a  pecuniary  reward." 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  that  with  these 
principles  Miss  Lyon  and  the  Seminary  were  a 
success. 

HER  PURPOSE  IN  LIFE 

We  must  not  suppose  that  because  Miss 
Lyon  did  not  marry  she  had  no  opportunities  to 
do  so.  As  a  girl  she  had  no  love  affairs.  When 
she  was  thirty  years  old,  and  a  well-educated 
woman,  a  gentleman  for  whom  she  had  the 
highest  respect,  a  man  of  ability,  of  ample 
means,  and  of  fine  social  standing,  wished  to 
marry  her.  She  realized  that  if  she  were  to 
marry  she  should  choose  this  man.  She  did 
not  marry  because  she  felt  that  with  her  experi- 
ence and  ability  she  could  help  other  young 
women  to  be  happy  and  useful  in  their  homes. 
To  all  offers  of  marriage  she  had  the  same 
courteous,  emphatic  answer,  that  it  was  her 
duty  to  live  for  other  women. 


MARY   LYON  79 

HER    BENEVOLENCE 

Although  Miss  Lyon  never  earned  much,  she 
spent  so  little  on  herself  that  she  had  relatively 
much  to  give  away.  She  gave  the  Seminary 
twelve  hundred  dollars  when  it  was  opened. 
She  helped  many  of  her  family  who  were  in 
need.  Out  of  her  two  hundred  dollars  a 
year  she  gave  to  many  benevolent  causes.  She 
left  by  will  the  only  real  estate  she  had  —  a 
house  she  had  bought  for  a  niece  when  in 
financial  trouble — to  the  foreign  missionary 
society.  Out  of  her  savings  this  society  re- 
ceived more  than  two  thousand  dollars. 

MISS  LYON'S  MOTTOES 

Miss  Lyon  had  a  few  principles  which  guided 
her  thought  and  action.  She  expressed  these 
ideas  as  follows: 

"Mind,  wherever  it  is  found,  will  secure 
respect." 

"There  are  controlling  minds  in  all  activities." 

"Leaders  should  have  a  good  Christian 
education." 

"The  country  towns  will  always  furnish  the 
material  out  of  which  many  leaders  will  be 
developed." 

"Influence  exerted  upon  country  girls  will 
always  be  felt." 


8o  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

"Educate  the  women,  and  the  men  will  be 
educated." 

"New  England  influence  has  always  been 
greater  than  its  size  and  population  would 
indicate;  and  if  this  is  to  continue,  it  must  con- 
tinue to  be  the  cradle  of  thought.  Educated 
women  must  rock  this  cradle." 

It  was  for  this  ideal  that  Miss  Lyon  remained 
unmarried,  and  gave  her  life  to  the  first  great 
seminary  for  women  in  America. 

AT  REST 

On  February  21,  1849,  Miss  Lyon  was  taken 
suddenly  ill  with  a  heavy  cold  arid  fever.  There 
was  no  expectation  of  a  serious  sickness,  but 
five  days  later  erysipelas  set  in.  On  Monday, 
March  5th,  she  passed  away.  The  Seminary  was 
deeply  affected  by  her  death,  and  the  whole 
of  New  England  and  New  York  mourned.  At 
her  funeral  the  noblest  tribute  was  paid  her  un- 
selfish life. 

Upon  her  monument  are  inscribed  these 
words,  which  she  had  spoken  with  great  earnest- 
ness : 

"THERE  is  NOTHING  IN  THE  UNIVERSE  THAT*  i 

FEAR  BUT  THAT  I  SHALL  NOT  KNOW  MY  DUTY,  OR 
SHALL  FAIL  TO  DO  IT." 


DAVID  P.  PAGE 

THE  NORMAL  SCHOOL  LEADER 


DAVID  P.  PAGE 

THE  NORMAL  SCHOOL  LEADER 
1810-1848 

"THEORY    AND    PRACTICE    OF   TEACHING" 

No  other  book  on  the  subject  of  education  has 
been  read  by  so  many  American  teachers  through 
so  many  years,  as  Page's  "Theory  and  Practice 
of  Teaching."  No  other  book  has  had  so  great 
influence  in  helping  teachers,  and  to  this  day  it 
remains  the  best  book  of  its  kind  ever  written. 
And  the  author  died  when  he  was  only  thirty- 
seven  years  old. 

David  P.  Page,  who  did  so  much  in  so  few 
years,  and  Henry  Barnard,  who  has  lived  almost 
ninety  years,  to  do  much  in  many  years,  were 
both  born  in  New  England  within  one  year  of 
each  other,  Mr.  Page  in  1810,  and  Dr.  Barnard 
in  1811.  The  one  died  in  1848,  the  other  is 
living,  in  1899. 

Mr.  Page  was  born  on  the  Fourth  of  July, 
and  died  on  New  Year's  day.  He  was  as 
patriotic  as  his  birthday  would  indicate,  and 
as  progressive  as  New  Year's  day  signifies. 

83 


84  GREAT   AMERICAN   EDUCATORS 

CHILDHOOD 

David  P.  Page  was  born  at  Epping,  a  small 
town  in  southeastern  New  Hampshire.  Here 
the  lad  grew  up  on  one  of  the  best  farms  in  the 
town.  His  father  thought  that  the  best  thing  a 
man  could  wish  for  was  to  own  a  comfortable 
farm,  and  this  he  could  give  David.  The  boy 
did  not  like  farming.  He  thought  it  anything 
but  interesting  to  look  forward  to  owning  a  farm 
and  working  on  it  all  his  life.  He  wanted  an 
education.  He  liked  books,  and  never  tired  of 
studying  and  reading. 

The  schools  in  Epping  were  poor.  By  the 
time  he  was  fourteen,  David  had  learned  all  that 
was  taught  in  the  little  red  schoolhouse,  and  he 
asked  his  father  to  let  him  go  to  the  academy. 
This  displeased  the  father,  who  said  that  the 
lad  would  know  so  much  he  would  not  be  will- 
ing to  stay  on  the  farm. 

The  father  loved  David  very  much,  and  it 
was  because  he  loved  him  that  he  wanted  to  give 
him  the  farm.  The  boy  loved  his  father,  but  he 
thought  he  could  please  him  more  by  learning  a 
great  deal  at  school  and  entering  upon  an  en- 
tirely different  line  of  life. 

When  David  was  sixteen  years  old  he  was 
taken  very  sick,  and  the  doctor  thought  he  would 
not  recover.  The  father  felt  very  badly.  Then 


DAVID   P.    PAGE  85 

the  doctor  said  the  boy  might  live  if  he  had 
something  to  make  him  happy.  This  was  a 
lucky  thought. 

"  David,  if  you  get  well  you  may  go  to  the 
academy,"  the  father  said  to  him.  This  was  the 
one  thing  in  all  the  world  that  the  lad  wanted  to 
do,  and  his  father's  promise  helped  him  to  get 
well.  When  the  next  term  of  the  Hampton 
Academy  opened  David  Page  was  among  the 
new  students. 

AT   SCHOOL 

The  Hampton  Academy  was  not  far  from 
Epping.  Of  the  New  Hampshire  academies  it 
was  nearest  the  important  cities  of  Portland, 
Portsmouth,  and  Boston,  and  it  was  especially  a 
place  for  rich  men's  sons,  who  cared  more  for 
fun  than  for  knowledge.  In  those  days  the 
principal  and  the  teachers  of  different  academies, 
as  well  as  all  the  students,  vied  with  one  another 
in  telling  of  the  rich  men  who  sent  their  sons  to 
their  academy.  Style  was  a  more  important 
factor  in  the  school  then  than  it  is  now;  the  dif- 
ference between  the  city  boy  and  the  farmer's 
son  was  greater. 

David  Page  wore  clothes  made  by  his  mother 
from  cloth  that  she  had  woven  herself.  He  had 
never  been  away  from  home,  was  awkward  in 
his  movements,  and  did  not  know  how  to  act  in 


86  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

company.  The  boys  who  had  better  clothes, 
who  knew  better  how  to  behave  at  eating  than 
at  studying,  made  fun  of  him,  and  called  him  the 
most  provoking  names  they  knew.  They  thought 
this  would  annoy  him—  "would  make  him  mad," 
as  they  said, — but  it  simply  made  him  despise 
them.  It  led  him  to  understand  that  a  boy  in 
homemade  clothes  who  behaved  well  was  much 
more  of  a  man  than  a  well-dressed  fellow  who 
was  rude  and  unmannerly. 

The  boys  were  not  necessarily  bad  because 
they  ridiculed  his  homespun  clothes  and  home- 
cut  hair.  They  were  ready  to  admire  him  as 
soon  as  they  saw  what  an  able  fellow  he  was. 
His  manliness  made  them  so  thoroughly  ashamed 
of  themselves  that  they  came  to  regard  him  as 
greatly  their  superior. 

David  learned  good  lessons  from  these  rich 
men's  sons.  No  boy  ever  learned  more  quickly 
how  to  do  things  in  the  right  way.  It  was  as 
easy  for  him  to  be  gentlemanly  as  for  any  city 
boy  to  be  so,  but  he  had  seen  nothing  of  etiquette 
until  he  came  to  Hampton.  He  despised  the 
spirit  that  could  ridicule  a  country  boy,  but  he 
recognized  the  advantages  of  courtesy  and  good 
manners. 

Teachers  and  students  alike  saw  the  trans- 
formation in  him.  He  took  high  rank  in  his 


DAVID    P.    PAGE  87 

studies  from  the  first,  and  became  a  leader  in 
many  ways.  His  coming  proved  as  great  an 
event  to  the  academy  as  to  himself.  All  rec- 
ognized that  the  new  student  was  destined  to 
become  a  prominent  man. 

Contrary  to  all  precedent,  the  principal  ad- 
vised the  young  man,  after  he  had  been  at  the 
academy  four  months,  to  go  out  and  teach  a 
winter  school.  He  was  only  seventeen  years  old, 
and  at  first  he  lacked  confidence.  He  wanted 
more  education,  and  not  early  experience  in 
teaching.  However,  he  acted  upon  the  princi- 
pal's advice,  and  taught  a  New  Hampshire  coun- 
try school  for  the  winter.  He  liked  the  work 
so  much  that  he  made  up  his  mind  to  be  a 
teacher.  He  went  back  to  the  academy  for  a  few 
months  more,  and  then  began  teaching  in  earnest, 
at  the  town  of  Newb'ury,  in  Massachusetts. 

NEWBURY 

David  Page  was  nineteen  years  old  when,  in 
1829,  he  went  to  Newbury  to  teach  a  country 
school  in  the  proverbial  little  red  schoolhouse. 
Newbury  is  a  town  with  an  early  school  history, 
and  the  records  of  its  first  schools  are  among 
the  best  in  the  United  States.  The  first  free 
classical  school  in  New  England  —  the  "  free 
grammar  school  " — was  established  here  in  1763 


88  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

by  Governor  William  Dummer,  a  native  of  the 
town.  Dummer  Academy  is  still  open,  one 
hundred  and  thirty-six  years  old. 

In  Newbury,  also,  was  established  the  first 
"female  seminary"  in  the  United  States,  and 
there  Mary  Lyon  received' her  best  education. 
In  this  seminary  were  educated,  besides  the 
founder  of  Mount  Holyoke  Seminary,  Miss  Grant, 
the  founder  of  New  Ipswich  Female  Seminary; 
Miss  Hasseltine,  the  founder  of  Bradford  Acad- 
emy; and  Anna  Judson  and  Harriet  Newell,  the 
first  women  foreign  missionaries  from  the  United 
States. 

Newbury  has  always  been  a  small  town,  with- 
out manufacturing  interests,  but  it  has  sent  forth 
men  and  women  of  influence.  It  has  taken  a 
brave  part  in  wars,  and  in  King  Philip's  War,  of 
colonial  times,  sixty-seven  of  the  hundred  and 
fifty  men  of  the  town  were  killed. 

To  this  town,  in  the  days  when  Dummer 
Academy  and  the  Female  Seminary  were  at  the 
height  of  their  popularity,  David  Page  came  to 
teach  one  of  the  district  schools. 

BOARDING  AROUND 

It  was  no  luxury  to  this  youth  of  nineteen  to 
teach  school  in  Newbury.  The  salary  was  called 
wages  then,  and  the  sum  paid  was  very  small. 
He  built  the  schoolhouse  fire  each  morning,  to 


DAVID   P.    PAGE  89 

save  expense  to  the  district.  Part  of  his  pay 
he  received  in  the  form  of  board  and  lodgings 
with  the  different  families.  He  went  from  house 
to  house,  staying  a  few  days  here,  several  days 
there,  according  to  the  number  of  pupils  the 
family  furnished  him.  Often  the  poorer  families, 
with  the  least  room  and  fewest  conveniences 
for  comfort,  supplied  the  larger  number  of 
pupils,  and  there  he  must  stay  longest.  He 
would  have  had  an  easier  time  that  winter  had 
he  remained  on  the  home  farm  at  Epping.  He 
would  have  been  admired  and  petted  by  the 
household,  and  had  his  own  comfortable  feather 
bed  to  tumble  into  every  night. 

David  that  winter  never  thought  of  his  trials 
and  self-denial,  but  of  how  much  he  was  learn- 
ing. He  learned,  not  from  books  but  from 
observation,  how  to  manage  schools  and  parents. 

If  David  Page  had  not  taught  that  little  dis- 
trict school  and  boarded  around,  the  teachers  of 
America  would  probably  have  missed  the  help 
of  his  "  Theory  and  Practice  of  Teaching." 
Without  this  experience  he  would  never  have 
made  his  speech  upon  "The  Mutual  Duties  of 
Parents  and  Teachers,"  which  Horace  Mann 
said  was  the  most  important  educational  address 
ever  delivered  in  America. 


QO  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

HIS  PRIVATE  SCHOOL 

Teaching  in  the  country  was  not  a  profitable 
occupation,  for  the  public  school  was  open  usu- 
ally only  four  months  in  the  year.  When  his 
term  ended,  David  -Page  was  the  most  popular 
teacher  ever  employed  in  that  district.  The 
older  citizens  looked  upon  him  as  a  son,  the 
young  people  regarded  him  as  a  chum,  and  to 
the  little  folk  he  was  like  a  father.  Every  one 
was  sorry,  and  none  more  than  young  Page 
himself,  when  the  school  closed. 

Some  one  suggested  a  private  school.  He 
liked  the  idea.  The  famous  Dummer  Academy 
had  already  celebrated  its  sixty-fifth  anniversary, 
and  the  Female  Seminary  was  prosperous,  but 
these  rivals  had  no  terror  for  the  young  man. 
He  opened  a  private  school,  with  every  reason 
to  expect  that  nearly  all  the  children  of  the  dis- 
trict would  attend. 

A  sudden  chill,  however,  had  fallen  upon  the 
community.  The  friends  of  the  Academy  and 
the  Seminary  were  feared,  and  only  five  pupils 
appeared  at  his  school.  Mr.  Page  showed  no 
one  his  disappointment,  but  taught  the  five 
pupils  with  so  much  spirit  and  enthusiasm  that 
soon  more  children  came,  and  he  had  a  large 
school. 

For  nearly  two   years  he  remained   in  the 


DAVID    P.    PAGE  91 

district,  teaching  the  public  school  in  winter  and 
the  private  school  the  rest  of  the  year.  He 
was  now  twenty-one,  and  his  salary  was  not 
large  nor  his  outlook  brilliant. 

All  this  time  he  was  a  great  student.  He 
taught  not  only  grammar-school  subjects,  but 
the  higher  branches  of  the  high  school,  and 
each  day  he  learned  more  about  the  subjects  he 
was  teaching.  By  his  own  efforts  he  became 
an  all-round  scholar. 

A  district  schoolmaster  in  those  days,  if  he 
was  liked,  was  very  popular.  David  Page  was 
praised  at  every  fireside,  was  talked  about  in 
every  grocery  store,  and  before  and  after  church 
on  Sunday  the  people  had  no  more  favorite 
theme  than  Master  Page. 

The  Newburyport  people,  a  few  miles  away, 
heard  of  his  success,  and  offered  him  a  position 
in  their  high  school.  At  twenty-one  years  of 
age  he  became  assistant  in  the  high  school,  in 
charge  of  the  English  department.  He  re- 
mained there  twelve  years. 

He  was  a  good  teacher,  but  he  was  never 
advanced  above  the  position  of  assistant.  He 
could  never  have  been  principal  of  a  Massachu- 
setts high  school,  because  he  was  not  a  classical 
scholar. 


92  GREAT   AMERICAN   EDUCATORS 

A  GREAT  SPEECH 

Mr.  Page  had  been  teaching  in  Newburyport 
six  years  when  Horace  Mann  began  his  educa- 
tional career.  Mr.  Mann  was  quick  to  recog- 
nize a  good  teacher,  and  David  Page  was  the 
first  teacher  that  he  discovered.  He  heard  Mr. 
Page  read  an  address  in  Lowell,  Massachusetts, 
before  the  American  Institute  of  Instruction,  in 
August,  1838.  This  is  the  oldest  educational 
association  in  the  world.  It  was  organized  in 
1830,  and  at  its  annual  meetings  were  read  the 
great  educational  addresses  of  the  country.  The 
paper  by  Mr.  Page,  on  "Duties  of  Parents  and 
Teachers,"  was  the  best  of  those  read  in  eight 
years. 

This  address  was  published  in  the  annual 
issue  of  the  association  for  the  year  1838,  but 
Mr.  Mann  was  not  willing  to  have  its  influence 
end  there.  He  had  the  state  print  several 
thousand  copies,  and  he  sent  one  to  every  teacher 
in  Massachusetts.  It  is  not  known  that  any 
other  address  was  ever  thus  honored. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  Page  was  at 
that  time  only  twenty-eight  years  old,  and  an 
assistant  high-school  teacher  in  a  town  of  less 
than  10,000  inhabitants.  He  showed  his  interest 
in  his  profession  by  always  attending  the  teach- 


DAVID   P.    PAGE  93 

ers'  associations,  and  by  writing  for  the  "Com- 
mon School  Journal." 

An  extract  will  give  some  idea  of  the  speech. 
It  was  clear,  vigorous,  wide-awake. 

"It  is  matter  of  deep  regret  that  a  profession 
which  affords  so  extensive  a  field  for  usefulness 
as  the  teacher's  should  be  so  generally  crowded 
with  difficulties  and  discouragements,  as  to  com- 
pel a  large  portion  of  talent  which  might  other- 
wise be  engaged  in  it  to  seek  employment  and 
distinction  elsewhere. 

"In  high  hopes  and  flowing  spirits  many  a 
young  man  enters  upon  the  business  of  instruct- 
ing, carrying  to  the  work  a  well-furnished  mind, 
and  a  large  share  of  zeal,  when  suddenly,  and 
unaccountably  to  himself,  he  finds  that  he  is  sur- 
rounded by  trials  he  had  never  foreseen — troubles 
that  have  .come  without  his  seeking,  and  of  such 
a  nature  as  to  render  his  situation  anything  but 
desirable.  He  does  what  his  ingenuity  and  his 
own  warm,  fresh  heart  suggest  to  remove  the 
evils;  but  though  he  may  change  the  place,  he 
too  often  still  keeps  the  pain. 

"The  profession  of  the  teacher  is  certainly 
an  important  one;  it  should  be  a  happy  one. 
The  adverse  influences  should  be  removed,  and 
the  teacher  should  be  left  free  to  devise  his  own 
plans,  and  to  find  his  enjoyment  in  witnessing 


Q4  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

the  success  attendant  upon  their  execution.  We 
would  not  ask  for  greater  emolument;  though, 
considering  the  fact  that  a  teacher's  best  years 
are  spent  in  his  duties,  and  when  his  best 
years  are  passed  away  an  enlightened  com- 
munity usually  judges  him  not  only  unfit  for 
school-keeping,  but  unfit  for  everything  else, 
we  are  constrained  to  believe  that  the  mat- 
ter of  compensation  has  been  little  enough 
thought  of. 

"  We  would  not  ask  for  greater  respect  and 
attention;  we  believe  that  in  New  England 
the  instructor  has  received  his  share  of  these, 
in  proportion  to  his  merits.  But  we  would  ask 
for  sympathy  —  for  soul-cheering  sympathy  on 
the  part  of  the  parents  of  those  we  are  called 
to  instruct;  we  would  plead  for  their  aid,  as 
far  as  they  can  assist  us,  and  then  we  could 
go  to  the  work  at  least  with  some  gleamings  of 
encouragement. 

"Let  parents  give  their  sympathy  and  co- 
operation to  the  teachers  of  their  children,  and 
the  profession  would  soon  be  filled  with  devoted 
and  talented  men,  who  would  be  willing  to  live 
and  die  in  their  work;  and  when  from  their  last 
pillow  they  should  cast  back  a  lingering  look  to 
the  scene  of  their  labors,  the  roses  would  amply 
conceal  the  sharpest  thorns." 


DAVID    P.    PAGE  95 

A  NORMAL  SCHOOL  PRINCIPAL 

In  1844  the  great  state  of  New  York  estab- 
lished its  first  normal  school,  at  Albany,  by  appro- 
priating $10,000  to  make  ready  for  it,  and 
$10,000  a  year,  for  five  years,  to  support  it.  A 
committee  of  eminent  men  was  appointed  to 
find  a  person  who  would  be  sure  to  make  a  suc- 
cess of  this  school.  There  were  many  men  in 
New  York,  Connecticut,  and  Massachusetts  who 
would  have  liked  the  position.  There  were 
eminent  college  professors,  high-school  and  acad- 
emy principals,  who  were  ready  to  take  it;  but 
the  committee  was  unanimous  in  the  choice  of 
the  young  assistant  in  the  Newburyport  high 
school.  He  had  never  attended  a  normal  school 
or  college,  and  had  studied  only  one  year  in  a 
New  Hampshire  academy,  where  he  was  at  first 
jeered  at  as  the  son  of  a  farmer. 

The  New  York  position  was  offered  to  him 
unsought,  and  he  came  near  declining  it.  Rarely 
has  such  an  honor  come  to  a  man  of  his  years, 
to  a  man  with  such  slight  school  advantage,— 
to  a  man  who  had  never  been  the  principal  of  a 
large  school. 

The  Normal  School  at  Albany  opened  on  the 
eighteenth  of  December,  1844.  Nothing  was  in 
readiness.  There  was  no  school  building,  and 
the  carpenters  were  still  at  work  hammering 


Q6  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

and  sawing,  in  the  building  that  had  been  secured 
for  temporary  use.  Mr.  Page  opened  the  school 
that  morning  with  sixteen  young  women  and 
thirteen  men. 

Mr.  Page  began  with  no  suitable  text-books, 
and  no  adequate  plan  of  work.  He  studied  the 
common  school  branches  with  his  twenty-nine 
students,  and  told  them  how  to  teach  them.  The 
students  found  fault  and  said  they  knew  all  that 
before.  Six  weeks  of  this  showed  him  that  he 
was  on  the  wrong  track.  Then  he  took  up  alge- 
bra and  physiology,  and  the  interest  increased, 
and  new  students  came. 

The  first  term  passed,  and  no  one  knew  so 
well  as  Mr.  Page  that  the  experiment  was  not  a 
success.  He  announced  that  with  the  opening 
of  the  second  term,  in  May,  they  would  begin  a 
practice  school.  Each  student  was  to  do  actual 
teaching  with  a  class.  This  plan  was  entirely 
new  in  America,  if  not  in  the  world. 

The  second  term  began  with  one  hundred 
and  seventy  students  enrolled,  six  times  as  many 
as  at  the  opening  of  the  first  term.  Now  all 
promised  well. 

THE    GOSPEL   OF   THE    PROFESSION 

Mr.  Page  delivered  a  formal  address  to  his 
students  each  term,  and  these  are  collected  in 
the  volume  known  to  teachers  as  "  Page's  Theory 


DAVID    P.    PAGE  97 

and  Practice  of  Teaching."  It  is  as  wise  and 
helpful  in  1 899  as  in  1 849.  This  book  is,  indeed, 
the  gospel  of  the  profession,  ever  old  and  ever 
new. 

OPPOSITION 

No  new  movement  ever  faced  a  worse  storm 
of  popular  opposition  than  this  normal  school. 
The  newspapers  ridiculed  and  denounced  it. 
They  invented  all  kinds  of  falsehoods  about  Mr. 
Page,  and  in  many  ways  misrepresented  the  school 
and  its  work.  The  politicians  were  against  it, 
and  the  teachers  of  the  state  had  no  love  for  the 
school  or  its  Massachusetts  principal.  The  teach- 
ers were  arrayed  against  him  for  all  kinds  of 
reasons.  They  complained  of  what  the  new  nor- 
mal school  was,  and  of  what  it  was  not;  of  what 
it  did  to  wrong  them,  and  of  what  it  failed  to  do 
to  help  them;  of  what  it  had  not  been,  and  of 
what  it  was  not  going  to  be. 

The  state  assembly  was  the  first  battle- 
ground where  politicians  and  teachers  united  to 
overthrow  the  school  and  its  principal.  Mr. 
Page  had  known  nothing  of  conflicts.  His  had 
been  a  quiet,  uneventful  life,  in  which  he  had 
met  little  opposition.  Now  he  was  suddenly 
thrown  into  a  fierce  fight,  and  he  proved  more 
than  a  match  for  the  combined  opposing  forces. 
He  met  them  in  argument  and  in  strategy,  and 


98         GREAT  AMERICAN  EDUCATORS 

single-handed  brought  confusion  to  men  who 
were  not  accustomed  to  defeat.  Every  year 
this  battle  was  waged;  every  time  his  triumph 
was  more  glorious.  The  Albany  Normal  Col- 
lege, one  of  the  great  professional  schools  of  the 
country,  has  been  the  pet  of  legislators  for  nearly 
fifty  years,  because  this  young  man  from  Mas- 
sachusetts challenged  their  admiration. 

HIS   TRIUMPH 

New  York  is  a  peculiarly  constituted  state. 
It  has  a  great  backbone,  with  many  cities  from 
Albany  to  Buffalo  as  vertebrae.  When  this 
great  line  of  cities  is  won,  the  state  is  won.  Mr. 
Page  saw  this,  and  when  he  knew  of  the  criti- 
cisms of  the  teachers,  he  went  out  to  these  cities, 
one  after  another,  to  explain  the  purpose  of  the 
normal  school.  His  presence  carried  conviction 
and  won  allegiance.  His  speeches  turned  the 
tide,  and  public  sentiment  favored  the  school. 
Large  numbers  of  students  came  to  him.  They 
were  inspired  to  glorious  effort,  and  a  new  educa- 
tional life  spread  through  the  state. 

Mr.  Page  met  with  a  series  of  personal  and  pro- 
fessional triumphs  such  as  has  been  witnessed  in 
the  case  of  no  other  educator  upon  the  platform. 
Mr.  Mann  and  Mr.  Barnard,  who  had  much 
greater  occasional  triumphs,  never  won  the 
teachers  in  a  famous  contest  as  did  Mr.  Page. 


DAVID    P.    PAGE  99 

Mr.  Mann  antagonized  the  many,  and  won  the 
few;  he  lost  the  masses  of  teachers,  and  won 
leaders,  great  men  in  many  walks  of  life.  Mr. 
Page  was  supported  by  the  eminent  Governor 
De  Witt  Clinton  as  loyally  as  Mr.  Mann  was 
supported  by  Sumner,  Everett,  and  Quincy;  he 
won  the  leaders  in  the  assembly;  and  he  won 
the  rank  and  file  of  the  teachers  from  Albany  to 
Buffalo. 

He  became  the  idol  of  the  multitude,  and  the 
more  the  weakness  of  his  school  was  attacked, 
the  more  sacred  did  he  become  in  the  eyes  of 
his  adherents.  It  was  a  grand  triumph  for  the 
man  and  for  the  cause  of  education. 

His  only  Waterloo  was  on  his  deathbed.  He 
exhausted  his  physical  resources  in  his  brave, 
ardent  efforts.  In  the  great  hour  of  need  he 
had  no  reserve  physical  force  with  which  to  do 
battle  with  the  angel  of  death. 

"SUCCEED  OR  DIE" 

At  the  end  of  four  years  David  Page's  sue- 
cess  was  complete.  At  Christmas  time  he  was 
taken  suddenly  ill,  and  died  on  New  Year's  Day 
of  1848. 

"  Succeed  or  die,"  were  the  last  words  of 
Horace  Mann  to  David  Page,  when  the  young 
man  of  thirty-three  went  to  Albany  to  begin  his 
normal  school  experiment.  He  did  both;  he 


100          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

died  at  the  moment  that  success  was  achieved. 
No  one  was  so  proud  of  his  success  as  Mr. 
Mann,  and  no  one  so  sincere  a  mourner  because 
of  his  early  death. 


HENRY  BARNARD 

THE    NESTOR   OF   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 


HENRY   BARNARD 


HENRY   BARNARD 

1811- 


Dr.  Henry  Barnard  is  one  of  the  most  eminent 
of  American  educators.  Although  fifteen  years 
younger  than  Horace  Mann  and  Mary  Lyon,  he 
entered  upon  an  educational  career  at  about  the 
same  time  that  they  did.  He  was  only  two 
years  younger  than  Longfellow,  Holmes,  and 
Whittier,  and  he  was  a  leader  in  the  times  of 
Webster,  Clay,  and  Calhoun;  yet  he  has  lived 
to  enjoy  the  professional  companionship  of  even 
the  young  men  of  to-day.  He  witnessed  the  first 
coming  of  the  ideals  of  Pestalozzi  to  America, 
and  the  educational  reforms  of  Frobel.  Thus 
has  Dr.  Barnard  worked  with  every  man  whose 
name  will  be  associated  with  education  in  the 
nineteenth  century.  No  other  man  has  had 
this  privilege. 

When  Dr.  Barnard  began  his  professional 
career  there  were  no  good  school  buildings 
except  in  a  few  cities.  The  schoolhouses  were 
neither  ventilated  nor  well  heated;  they  had  no 
good  seats,  no  serviceable  blackboards,  and  no 
apparatus  of  any  kind.  The  few  schoolbooks 

103 


104          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

used  by  the  pupils  were  of  the  most  inferior  kind. 
Reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic  were  the  only 
subjects  generally  taught,  and  cruel  flogging  was 
witnessed  daily  in  the  schools.  Dr.  Barnard  ad- 
vocated improvements  in  all  these  lines,  and  he 
has  seen  the  changes  as  they  have  taken  place. 

HIS  BOYHOOD 

Henry  Barnard  is  still  living  (in  1899)  at 
Hartford,  Connecticut,  in  the  same  house  in 
which  he  was  born,  on  January  24,  1811.  It  is  a 
mansion  of  the  old  substantial  style  of  architec- 
ture, and  in  his  childhood  must  have  been  one 
of  the  finest  houses  in  Hartford.  His  father 
was  a  prominent  citizen,  and.  belonged  to  one  of 
the  first  families  of  Connecticut. 

Henry  went  to  the  common  schools  from 
early  boyhood,  though  most  of  the  Hartford 
boys  whose  parents  were  well-to-do  were  sent 
to  private  schools.  At  twelve  years  of  age  he 
was  sent  to  the  academy  at  Monson,  Massachu- 
setts, and  afterwards  to  the  Hopkins  School,  in 
Hartford,  to  prepare  for  college. 

His  schoolmates  have  told  many  interesting 
stories  of  his  brilliant  scholarship,  and  his 
declamations  and  debates  at  school.  He  held 
high  rank  in  his  classes,  could  speak  well,  was  a 
fine  appearing  lad,  and  was  always  looked  up 
to  as  a  leader. 


HENRY  BARNARD          105 

AT  COLLEGE 

At  fifteen  years  of  age  Henry  Barnard  entered 
Yale  College,  and  at  nineteen  he  graduated  with 
honors.  Young  as  he  was,  he  was  one  of  the 
ablest  men  in  the  literary  societies,  and  was 
president  of  the  Linonian,  the  leading  debating 
society  at  Yale.  He  took  prizes  in  English  and 
in  Latin  composition. 

Such  distinction  meant  much,  for  there  were 
many  able  men  in  Yale  with  Henry  Barnard. 
Horace  Bushnell,  one  of  the  greatest  preachers 
in  the  United  States,  was  there;  Francis  Barnard, 
afterwards  president  of  Columbia  College;  and 
Noah  Porter,  later  president  of  Yale.  Among 
his  fellow-students,  three  became  United  States 
senators,  nine  members  of  Congress,  one  Secre- 
tary of  War,  five  ministers  to  foreign  countries, 
three  governors  of  states,  fifteen  judges,  six 
college  presidents,  and  forty-three  college  pro- 
fessors. It  was  a  proof  of  great  ability  for  a 
lad  in  his  teens  to  carry  off  honors  among  such 
talent. 

The  year  that  he  graduated  from  college, 
Daniel  Webster  delivered  the  great  speech  of  his 
life — the  reply  to  Colonel  Hayne  in  the  United 
States  senate.  This  made  a  profound  impres- 
sion upon  the  young  orator  of  Yale. 

At  the  same  time   William  Lloyd  Garrison 


106    GREAT  AMERICAN  EDUCATORS 

was  at  the  height  of  his  power  as  an  enthusias- 
tic champion  of  the  rights  of  the  negro,  and  this 
appealed  strongly  to  Mr.  Barnard. 

He  was  resolved  upon  a  public  career,  in 
which  oratory  was  to  play  a  leading  part.  In 
preparation  for  this  he  studied  law  after  gradu- 
ating from  college,  and  was  duly  admitted  to 
the  bar.  Before,  practicing  law  he  went  to 
Europe,  where  he  visited  all  the  principal 
countries,  and  became  acquainted  with  Words- 
worth, Carlyle,  De  Quincey,  and  other  noted 
writers.  Thus,  with  study  and  travel,  he  secured 
the  best  equipment  for  a  successful  public  career. 

CHOOSING    A    CAREER 

On  his  return  from  Europe,  at  scarcely  twenty- 
five  years  of  age,  Mr.  Barnard  was  elected  to  the 
Connecticut  legislature  from  Hartford.  This 
was  quick  recognition  for  a  man  who  had  ore- 
viously  done  nothing  in  politics. 

He  became  at  once  interested  in  the 
cause  of  education,  and  proposed  a  bill  creating 
a  State  Board  of  Education.  The  legislature  of 
Connecticut  was  very  conservative.  .  Few  people 
believed  that  it  would  accept  any  school  bill, 
especially  one  so  ideal  and  revolutionary  as  that 
offered  by  Mr.  Barnard.  Yet  such  was  his  influ- 
ence and  magnetism,  that  after  his  eloquent 
sneech,  the  bill  passed  the  house  of  representa- 


HENRY    BARNARD  107 

tives  without  a  dissenting  vote,  and  was  adopted 
unanimously  by  the  senate. 

The  same  year  that  Mr.  Barnard  entered 
political  life,  Horace  Mann  left  the  Massachu- 
setts legislature,  to  give  himself  to  the  work  of 
education.  Mr.  Barnard's  admiration  for  Horace 
Mann  vied  with  his  admiration  for  Webster  and 
Garrison,  and  the  choice  between  an  educational 
and  a  political  or  legal  career  was  a  difficult  one. 

In  the  law,  a  way  was  open  to  fame  and  for- 
tune, with  every  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of 
all  the  popular  powers  he  possessed.  One  of 
the  ablest  lawyers  of  New  York  city,  the  attor- 
ney-general for  the  state,  had  invited  him  to 
become  his  law  partner.  Few  young  men  of 
twenty-seven  would  decline  such  an  offer  for  the 
sake  of  being  an  educator. 

Horace  Mann  was  the  only  man  in  the  coun- 
try who  would  have  said,  "Do  it."  Henry  Bar- 
nard did  it.  For  sixty  years  he  has  devoted  his 
life  to  the  schools,  and  his  eminence  and  service 
in  his  chosen  field  more  than  justify  the  choice. 

SCHOOL   WORK    IN    CONNECTICUT 

Mr.  Barnard  accepted  the  position  of  secre- 
tary of  the  Connecticut  Board  of  Education, 
which  is  practically  that  of  state  superintendent 
of  schools.  He  was  very  active  in  arranging 
educational  conventions  in  every  county,  and  in 


108          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

visiting  schools.  He  corresponded  with  more 
than  two  thirds  of  the  teachers  in  the  state,  and 
addressed  many  public  meetings. 

He  established  the  Connecticut  School  Jour- 
nal, and  wrote  annual  reports,  second  in  value 
only  to  those  which  Horace  Mann  was  writing 
in  Massachusetts.  Kent,  in  his  famous  "Com- 
mentaries on  American  Law,"  speaks  of  Mr. 
Barnard's  first  report  as  a  "  bold  and  startling 
document,"  which  "  contains  a  minute,  accurate, 
comprehensive,  and  instructive  exhibition  of  the 
condition  and  operation  of  the  common  school 
system." 

Mr.  Barnard  continued  this  work  for  four 
years.  Then  the  baser  politicians,  for  political 
purposes,  succeeded  in  abolishing  the  office  he 
held.  Most  men  would  have  returned  to  law  in 
discouragement,  but  Henry  Barnard  persevered 
in  the  cause  he  had  made  his  own. 

IN  RHODE  ISLAND 

The  Rhode  Island  legislature,  at  about  this 
time,  did  what  has  rarely  been  done  in  America 
for  any  educator.  It  adjourned  all  business  and 
met  in  joint  session  to  listen  to  an  address  from 
Mr.  Barnard  upon  the  subject  of  education. 
This  speech  was  one  of  the  grandest  efforts  of 
his  life.  In  consequence  of  it,  the  legislature 
passed  a  law  much  like  the  school  law  of  Con- 


HENRY   BARNARD  IOQ 

necticut,  and  Mr.  Barnard  became  the  first  Com- 
missioner of  Education  for  Rhode  Island. 

He  did  not  wish  to  accept  the  position  when 
the  governor  offered  it  to  him.  He  had  begun 
to  prepare  a  work  on  the  history  of  education. 
He  yielded,  however,  when  the  governor  said, 
"  Isn't  it  better,  Barnard,  to  make  history  than 
to  write  it? " 

During  the  five  years  that  he  was  in  Rhode 
Island  he  made  history  of  education  very  fast. 
He  put  the  schools  into  good  condition,  and  for 
the  first  time  secured  public  taxation  for  their 
support.  Through  his  efforts  more  than  sixteen 
thousand  educational  pamphlets  were  distributed 
gratuitously,  and  libraries  of  at  least  five  hun- 
dred volumes  were  established  in  all  but  three 
towns  of  the  state. 

Mr.  Barnard  left  this  work  because  his  health 
failed.  The  teachers  of  the  state  gave  him  a 
testimonial  of  their  regret,  and  the  legislature 
unanimously  extended  to  him  a  vote  of  "thanks 
for  the  able,  faithful,  and  judicious  manner  in 
which  he  had  fulfilled  the  duties  of  his  office." 

OTHER  POSITIONS 

While  Rhode  Island  was  moving  forward 
rapidly  under  the  lead  of  Mr.  Barnard,  Con- 
necticut became  very  much  ashamed  of  the  way 
she  had  treated  him.  When  his  health  was 


HO          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

restored,  in  1850,  he  was  invited  to  become  prin- 
cipal of  the  new  state  normal  school,  and  super- 
intendent of  Connecticut  schools.  He  carried 
on  this  work  in  a  successful  and  popular  manner 
for  four  years,  until  ill-health  necessitated  his 
resigning  both  positions. 

After  three  years  of  freedom  from  care,  and 
several  months  of  travel  through  the  South  and 
West,  he  accepted  the  presidency  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Wisconsin.  He  remained  there  two 
years,  and  gave  much  time  and  attention  to  the 
school  work  of  that  state. 

In  1866  he  was  elected  president  of  St.  John's 
College,  in  Maryland.  He  worked  there  until 
he  was  appointed  by  the  President,  in  1867,  to 
organize  a  national  Bureau  of  Education,  and 
then  he  became  the  first  United  States  Com- 
missioner of  Education. 

In  other  ways  Mr.  Barnard  had  been  honored. 
In  1851  both  Yale  and  Union  College  bestowed 
upon  him  the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Laws.  The  next  year  Harvard  gave  him  the 
same  honor,  and  later  Columbia  bestowed  the 
degree  of  L.  H.  D. 

No  other  man,  as  an  educator  simply,  ever 
received  such  honors  from  four  such  institu- 
tions. They  were  earned  and  bestowed  by  the 
time  he  was  forty  years  old. 


HENRY   BARNARD  III 

COMMISSIONER   OF   EDUCATION 

The  Bureau  of  Education  is  now  recognized 
as  one  of  the  important  departments  of  govern- 
ment, but  when  Dr.  Barnard  was  appointed  the 
first  Commissioner  of  Education,  on  March  14, 
1867,  the  scope  of  the  department  was  yet  to  be 
determined.  Dr.  Barnard's  acquaintance  with 
all  educators,  and  with  most  of  the  public  men 
of  this  country  and  of  Europe,  at  once  gave  the 
bureau  a  wide  influence. 

Without  a  week's  delay,  he  began  to  gather 
statistics  regarding  all  classes  of  schools,  colleges, 
and  professional  institutions,  in  their  organiza- 
tion, equipment,  instruction,  and  management. 
He  also  looked  up  the  facts  about  school  funds, 
educational  associations,  school  laws,  and  school- 
houses.  In  a  few  weeks  he  developed  the  plans 
upon  which  most  of  the  valuable  educational 
information  of  the  past  thirty  years  has  been 
gathered.  His  own  library  became  the  nucleus 
from  which  a  national  educational  library  has 
grown. 

When  we  view  the  vast,  grand  work  that  has 
been  accomplished  by  this  department,  and  is 
being  done  now  by  Commissioner  William  T. 
Harris  and  his  corps  of  experts,  we  appreciate 
how  much  we  owe  to  the  man  whose  energy 
established  the  office  and  whose  scholarship  set 
its  high  standard. 


112          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

AS   AN   AUTHOR 

Dr.  Barnard  began,  in  1855,  the  publication  of 
a  series  of  annual  volumes  on  education,  known 
as  the  "American  Journal  of  Education,"  and 
continued  it  until  1893.  These  volumes  give  a 
vast  amount  of  information  upon  education  in 
the  different  countries  of  the  world  —  informa- 
tion such  as  can  be  found  in  no  other  place. 
No  greater  series  of  books  on  education  has 
ever  been  published. 

The  "Journal"  cost  Dr.  Barnard  $50,000 
more  than  he  received  from  it,  and  his  fortune 
was  ultimately  lost  in  the  great  enterprise.  Yet 
it  will  be  his  lasting  monument. 

These  volumes  and  his  reports  of  the  Bureau 
of  Education  prove  beyond  all  question  that  he 
has  mastered  the  history  of  education  in  the 
nineteenth  century  in  a  thorough,  comprehen- 
sive, and  critical  way  as  no  other  man  has  ever 
done. 

No  one  can  ever  write  about  American  or 
European  educational  affairs  from  1820  to  1875, 
without  drawing  most  of  his  information  and 
inspiration  from  the  writings  of  Henry  Barnard. 
He  has  all  the  instincts  of  the  scientist,  the 
patience  of  an  historian,  the  poise  of  a  statesman, 
and  the  zeal  of  a  reformer. 


HENRY   BARNARD  113 

CONCLUSION 

Dr.  Henry  Barnard  retired  from  the  office  of 
Commissioner  of  Education,  and  from  all  active 
educational  work,  on  March  15,  1870,  at  the  age 
of  sixty. 

When  he  began  his  career  as  an  educator, 
Connecticut  had  no  system  of  free  public 
schools.  During  the  previous  two  hundred 
years,  there  had  been  many  good  schools  in  the 
state,  but  education  could  not  become  general 
until  the  schools  were  free  and  public.  Dr.  Bar- 
nard's first  work  was  to  develop  a  public  school 
system,  and  to -place  the  schools  on  a. firm  finan- 
cial and  professional  basis.  Through  his  efforts 
they  have  ranked  for  more  than  fifty  years 
among  the  best  schools  in  the  country. 

In  Rhode  Island  he  did  equally  good  service. 
That  state,  also,  had  had  no  free  public  school 
system  worthy  the  name  until  Dr.  Barnard 
organized  and  developed  one.  She  has  been 
justly  proud  of  the  rank  of  her  schools  for  fifty 
years,  and  it  is  largely  due  to  Dr.  Barnard.  No 
other  man  has  been  so  closely  allied  with  the 
organization  of  two  almost  perfect  school 
systems  in  two  important  states. 

In  his  eminence  as  orator  and  author,  in  his 
personal  acquaintance  with  the  eminent  literary 
and  scholarly  men  and  women  in  both  hemi- 


114          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

spheres,  in  the  length  of  time  he  has  served  the 
cause  of  education,  as  the  promoter  of  the  edu- 
cational systems  of  two  states,  and  as  the  father 
of  the  national  Bureau  of  Education,  which  is 
the  most  perfect  department  of  the  kind  in  the 
world,  Dr.  Barnard  has  enjoyed  a  great  com- 
bination of  opportunities  and  successes  as  an 
educator. 

A  thorough  scholar,  a  brilliant  orator,  a  forci- 
ble writer,  a  skillful  administrator,  he  has  devoted 
his  talents,  his  time,  and  his  wealth  to  the  cause 
of  education  for  sixty-five  of  the  eighty-eight 
years  of  his  life. 


JOHN   DUDLEY  PHILBRICK 

A  FAMOUS   SUPERINTENDENT  OF   CITY   SCHOOLS 


JOHN  DUDLEY  PHILBRICK 

A  GREAT  CITY  SUPERINTENDENT 
1818—1886 

John  Dudley  Philbrick  came  of  the  most 
eminent  stock  of  any  of  the  great  educators. 
He  was  a  direct  descendant  of  Governor  Thomas 
Dudley,  one  of  the  early  leaders  of  Massachu- 
setts, whose  name  is  perpetuated  in  an  important 
street,  and  in  one  of  the  best  schools  of  Boston. 
Among  his  ancestors  were  several  judges  and 
officials.  There  is  a  tradition  that  his  grand- 
father read  six  thousand  books  in  forty  years. 
He  was  certainly  a  great  reader,  and  John  D. 
Philbrick  inherited  a  love  for  books. 

He  was  born  May  27,  1818,  on  the  New 
Hampshire  farm  which  had  been  cleared  and 
built  upon  by  his  great-grandfather,  when  the 
pioneers  came  up  from  Massachusetts  and  made 
a  new  settlement  in  the  wilds  of  the  hill  country. 
The  pioneer  blood  was  in  his  veins.  Many  of 
the  family  had  done  new  things,  had  opened  up 
new  ways,  and  he  was  as  active  in  this  as  any  of 
them.  All  his  life  he  was  putting  new  ideas  to 
the  test,  and  proving  that  they  were  good. 

117 


Il8          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

HIS   BIRTHPLACE 

Deerfield,  where  John  D.  Philbrick  was  born, 
is  a  secluded  New  Hampshire  town  that  has 
never  had  a  railroad  anywhere  near  it,  nor  even 
a  stage  line  connecting  it  with  important  towns. 
It  is  a  farming  town,  and  the  Philbrick  home 
was  such  a  one  as  Whittier's,  which  is  de- 
scribed in  "Snow- Bound." 

Deerfield  is  thirty  miles  from  the  seacoast, 
among  the  hills  of  southern  New  Hampshire. 
It  was  a  good  place  for  a  farmer's  boy  to  work 
hard  all  the  year  round,  and  young  Philbrick 
liked  hard  work.  He  was  better  able  to  work 
than  were  Horace  Mann,  David  P.  Page,  and 
James  P.  Wickersham,  and  he  enjoyed  the  farm 
life  more  than  they  did. 

John  Philbrick  grew  up  in  the  atmosphere  of 
generous  hospitality  that  has  ever  pervaded  the 
great  farmhouses  of  New  Hampshire.  The 
Philbricks  always  had  an  open  door,  an  open 
fire,  a  well-spread  table,  and  a  spare  bed.  Visi- 
tors and  wayfarers  were  sure  of  a  warm  welcome 
and  royal  good  cheer.  Kindliness  and  a  desire 
to  make  other  people  happy  were  prominent 
traits  of  the  family.  This  spirit  characterized 
the  youngest  son,  John,  through  life,  and  no 
one  who  enjoyed  his  hospitality  will  forget  it. 


JOHN    DUDLEY    PHILBRICK  1 19 

» 

HIS    BOYHOOD 

It  is  not. often  that  a  farmer's  boy  is  in  haste 
to  get  to  work;  but  John  Philbrick  was  always 
hurrying  up  his  father  and  elder  brother  to  get 
into  the  fields  and  pastures  early  in  the  spring, 
and  put  the  fences  and  stone  walls  in  order. 
Every  rod  of  fence  and  wall  had  to  be  looked 
over  every  season.  The  shiftless  farmer  waits 
till  a  comfortable  day  comes,  and  the  snow  is 
gone,  and  then  he  fixes  the  fence  on  the  very 
day  that  he  ought  to  be  plowing  and  planting, 
when  the  cattle  should  be  out  in  the  sunny  pas- 
tures. John  was  a  thrifty  lad,  and  he  had  every 
wall  and  fence  in  good  condition  by  the  time 
the  cattle  were  ready  to  go  out,  and  the  fields 
could  be  plowed. 

Picking  stones  is  an  occupation  that  a  farm- 
er's boy  rarely  likes,  but  John  Philbrick  liked 
it.  Not  that  he  enjoyed  the  work  more  than 
other  boys,  but  he  kept  thinking  how  much  easier 
it  would  be  to  hoe  weeds  out  of  the  crops  when 
there  were  but  few  stones  in  the  way.  He  was 
always  the  first  to  suggest  that  it  was  time  to 
pick  up  stones  from  the  fields  and  use  them  in 
fixing  the  walls. 

He  was  always  getting  ready  for  the  next 
thing,  making  everything  easy  for  the  next  job. 
In  this  way  nothing  was  hard  for  him.  Even 


120          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

picking  stones  was  pleasant,  because  he  was 
thinking  how  much  easier  it  would  make  the 
other  work. 

MAKING  MAPLE  SUGAR 

The  Philbrick  farm  had  a  fine  sugar  bush  on 
it.  The  grove  of  maple  trees  from  which  the 
sap  is  taken  to  make  maple  syrup  is  called,  in 
New  Hampshire,  a  sugar  bush.  As  soon  as  the 
snows  of  winter  began  to  melt  under  the  first 
hot  midday  sun  of  spring,  John  stirred  the  whole 
household  to  activity. 

He  seems  to  have  been  the  first  person  there- 
abouts to  appreciate  the  importance  of  getting 
the  first  sap  from  the  trees.  The  farmers  had  a 
way  of  waiting  for  the  right  kind  of  weather, 
and  would  discuss  whether  to-morrow  would  not 
be  better  than  to-day;  but  John  Philbrick  learned 
that  the  sap  does  not  make  good  syrup  unless  it 
is  taken  before  the  buds  begin  to  "  set  "  or  swell. 
The  first  sap  is  much  better  and  is  worth  more 
than  a  larger  quantity  taken  when  it  is  strong 
or  bitter.  The  Philbrick  maple  sugar  was  the 
best  in  town,  because  John  had  the  good  sense 
to  be  in  the  bush  early  and  get  the  first  sap  that 
came  up  from  the  roots. 

This  was  like  John  Philbrick  when  he  became 
a  man.  He  was  always  doing  things  early. 


JOHN   DUDLEY   PHILBRICK  121 

41     BREAKING   STEERS 

Farm  work  made  John  Philbrick  rugged, 
healthy,  and  strong.  When  he  was  still  a  mere 
lad  he  was  the  best  fellow  in  town  to  break 
steers.  It  took  a  man  of  tact,  courage,  and 
strength  to  yoke  up  a  pair  of  wild  steers  and 
train  them  to  go  in  the  road,  to  "  haw "  and 
"gee,"  to  stop  and  back  when  they  were  told. 
Oxen  were  worth  more  when  they  were  well 
broken  than  when  they  were  poorly  trained. 
John  Philbrick  added  several  dollars  to  the 
value  of  any  oxen  if  he  had  the  breaking  of 
them.  A  few  years  later  he  enjoyed  teaching 
wild  boys  a  lesson  as  much  as  he  had  enjoyed 
taming  steers. 

One  evening,  in  his  first  year  at  college,  a 
company  of  mischievous  sophomores  came  to 
the  room  of  this  farmer's  son,  and  told  him 
that  he  must  prepare  to  do  several  disagree- 
able things.  Before  the  spokesman  had  finished 
his  orders,  John  seized  a  chair  with  one  hand 
and  swinging  it  like  a  dumb-bell,  started  for 
the  crowd.  Like  a  flash  they  bolted  for  the 
stairs,  rushed  down,  literally  tumbling  over  one 
another;  and  several  of  them  carried  bruises 
from  chair  and  stairs. 

The  dormitory  was  aroused,  and  indeed  the 
whole  college,  and  the  president  sent  for  the 


122    GREAT  AMERICAN  EDUCATORS 

freshman  who  had  caused  such  commotion. 
Young  Philbrick  told  his  story,  and  the  pres- 
ident said:  "You  did  just  right.  If  more  fresh- 
men had  your  pluck  and  strength  there  would 
be  an  end  to  college  hazing." 

With  equally  effective  means  Mr.  Philbrick 
met  opposition  throughout  his  life.  In  conven- 
tions, on  the  school  board,  or  on  the  State  Board 
of  Education,  if  he  thought  any  one  was  pre- 
paring an  underhanded  attack,  he  seized  the 
first  opportunity  to  drive  him  into  the  open 
field  for  a  fair  contest.  He  put  many  a  crowd 
to  rout  in  his  professional  career. 

THE    TURNING    POINT 

The  turning  point  in  the  life  of  Page  was  at 
sixteen.  So  it  was  with  John  Philbrick. 

It  was  a  mellow  April  day.  The  maple  syrup 
had  been  made,  the  stones  picked  from  the  fields, 
and  the  fences  and  walls  put  in  order.  John 
was  now  worth  more  than  any  farm  hand.  He 
had  never  been  so  valuable  as  this  spring.  He 
was  in  the  field  plowing  with  his  father.  They 
were  getting  a  good  start,  when  an  uncle,  not 
much  older  than  John,  from  a  neighboring  town, 
drove  up,  and  stopped  beside  the  fence. 

"  I  am  going  to  the  Pembroke  Academy  to 
take  up  my  studies  again,  Peter,"  he  said  to 
John's  father,  "  and  I  am  going  to  board  myself. 


JOHN    DUDLEY    PHILBRICK  123 

I  wish  you  would  let  John  come  along  and  keep 
house  with  me." 

The  boy  was  all  attention.  It  had  never 
occurred  to  him  that  he  could  have  an  education. 

"  Can't  spare  him,"  said  the  father.  But  they 
talked  the  matter  over.  Although  John  had 
never  thought  of  going  to  the  academy,  the  first 
remark  of  his  uncle  showed  him  his  opportunity 
and  instantly  fixed  his  purpose. 

"  Better  go  up  and  see  mother,"  said  John; 
"  for  if  I  am  going  away  she  will  want  Miss  - 
to  make   me   some   clothes,  and   she   is   at  the 
house  to-day." 

The  oxen  stood  in  the  furrow,  the  plow  was 
left  in  the  sod,  and  Peter,  John,  and  the  uncle 
went  up  to  talk  it  over  with  mother.  In  a  few 
minutes  everything  was  settled,  and  arrange- 
ments were  made  for  the  seamstress  to  make 
John  a  suit  of  clothes  for  the  academy. 

AT  COLLEGE 

For  four  years  John  Philbrick  attended  the 
academy  a  term  or  two  each  year,  and  at  twenty 
years  of  age  he  was  fitted  for  college,  and 
entered  Dartmouth. 

The  expense  of  going  to  college  was  not 
great  in  those  days.  The  admission  fee  was 
only  twenty-five  cents,  the  tuition  was  about 
thirty  cents  a  week,  or  $4.25  a  term.  If  John 


124    GREAT  AMERICAN  EDUCATORS 

had  paid  his  board  instead  of  boarding  himself, 
it  would  have  cost  him  only  $1.25  a  week  more. 

At  twenty-four,  he  was  graduated  from  col- 
lege, with  the  class  of  1842,  which  was  the 
largest  in  the  history  of  Dartmouth  up  to  the 
year  1899.  One  hundred  and  one  men  entered, 
thirty  others  ioined  later,  and  eighty-seven  were 
graduated. 

As  freshmen,  the  class  was  so  large,  and  so 
strong  physically,  that  the  sophomores  never 
succeeded  in  "rushing"  them.  We  have  already 
seen  how  John  Philbrick  disposed  of  the  sopho- 
mores who  planned  to  haze  him. 

The  members  of  this  class  won  many  dis- 
tinctions in  later  life.  One  was  a  distinguished 
general  in  the  Civil  War,  one  a  member  of 
President  Grant's  cabinet,  and  another  was  gov- 
ernor of  Louisiana.  Five  became  judges,  and 
many  others  were  eminent  as  lawyers,  physicians, 
and  clergymen.  Mr.  Philbrick  in  his  sphere 
was  as  highly  honored  as  any  of  his  classmates. 

A  BOSTON  SCHOOLMASTER 

Mr.  Philbrick  went  from  college  to  teach  in  a 
school  at  Roxbury,  Massachusetts,  which  after- 
wards became  a  part  of  Boston.  After  a  few 
months,  he  became  an  assistant  in  the  English 
High  School  of  Boston.  Next  he  was  appointed 
one  of  the  two  head  teachers  in  the  Mayhew 


JOHN    DUDLEY    PHILBRICK  125 

school,  and  in  this  position  he  made  his  reputa- 
tion as  a  teacher. 

The  grammar  schools  at  this  time  were  con- 
ducted on  the  double-headed  plan  adopted  at 
the  Boston  town  meeting  in  1789.  One  depart- 
ment of  the  school  was  called  a  "writing  school," 
and  in  it  were  taught  writing  and  arithmetic; 
the  other  department  was  a  "reading  school," 
where  reading,  spelling,  and  grammar  were 
taught.  Each  pupil  attended  the  writing  school 
half  a  day,  and  the  reading  school  the  other 
half. 

The  pupils  of  each  department,  about  two 
hundred  boys,  were  seated  in  one  large  hall. 
At  one  end  of  each  room  was  a  head  master,  at 
the  other  end  another  man,  called  an  usher,  and 
on  each  side  about  midway  sat  a  woman  teacher. 
At  times  the  women  teachers  could  take  a  few 
pupils  into  a  side  room  for  recitation.  It  was 
very  confusing,  having  so  many  pupils  and  so 
much  going  on  in  the  large  room. 

These  were  called  men's  schools.  The  lower 
and  smaller  schools  were  women's  schools;  and 
girls,  in  those  days,  could  go  to  school  only  from 
April  2Oth  to  October  2Oth. 

When  Mr.  Philbrick  had  been  in  Boston 
about  two  years,  a  school  called  the  "Quincy" 
was  organized  on  an  entirely  new  plan.  Instead 
of  two  head  teachers,  there  was  to  be  only  one 


126          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

master  in  the  school.  The  four  hundred  boys  of 
the  old  reading  and  writing  departments  were 
divided  into  classes  of  about  fifty  pupils,  each 
class  occupying  a  separate  room.  Mr.  Philbrick 
was  appointed  principal  of  this  school.  The 
new  plan  met  with  great  opposition;  but  he  made 
his  school  so  successful  that  all  the  schools  in 
Boston  were  soon  changed  to  this  plan. 

Mr.  Philbrick  was  the  first  to  use  single  desks 
in  the  schoolroom  in  place  of  the  old  ones  for 
two  pupils.  Whipping  in  school  was  reduced 
to  one  fourth  what  it  had  been  before,  when  he 
started  the  first  great  grammar  school  with  one 
master.  Later  he  became  one  of  the  first 
champions  of  drawing  and  music  in  the  schools; 
and  they  are  much  better  taught  in  the  schools 
of  America  to-day  because  of  the  way  he  insisted 
upon  having  them  taught.  His  pioneer  blood 
was  showing  itself. 

John  D.  Philbrick  was  in  every  sense  a 
teacher.  No  one  gets  so  good  a  test  of  his 
power  to  teach  as  a  grammar-school  master. 
He  has  to  know  more  than  other  teachers  about 
boys  and  girls,  and  he  has  to  do  more  for  them. 

Mr.  Philbrick  is  the  only  educational  leader 
whose  reputation  was  made  as  a  grammar-school 
master.  Mr.  Mann  was  a  lawyer,  and  not  a 
teacher.  He  was  a  reformer — a  born  leader  of 
men.  Miss  Lyon  was  a  private-school  teacher, 


JOHN    DUDLEY   PHILBRICK  127 

and  a  seminary  principal.  Mr.  Barnard  was  not 
a  teacher  so  much  as  an  educational  official, 
editor,  and  orator.  Mr.  Page  was- a  high-school 
teacher,  and  a  normal-school  principal.  Mann, 
Barnard,  Wickersham,  and  Bateman  made  their 
reputations  largely  as  state  superintendents. 

IN  CONNECTICUT 

Mr.  Philbrick  had  had  five  years  of  success 
in  the  Quincy  School,  when  it  was  decided  to 
have  a  city  superintendent  of  schools.  He  de- 
sired the  position,  but  the  school  board  chose 
Mr.  Bishop,  then  superintendent  at  Providence, 
Rhode  Island, — the  first  city  in  the  country  to 
have  a  superintendent  of  schools. 

Mr.  Philbrick  felt  this  defeat  keenly,  and  a 
little  later  accepted  a  position  as  principal  of 
the  Connecticut  State  Normal  School,  at  New 
Britain.  He  was  so  successful  there  that  he 
was  soon  chosen  State  Superintendent  of  Schools 
in  Connecticut. 

THE    SALARY    QUESTION 

Mr.  Philbrick  never  refused  a  position  because 
the  salary  was  too  low,  and  never  accepted  one 
merely  because  it  offered  an  increase  in  salary. 
He  always  scorned  the  idea  of  a  teacher's  being 
largely  influenced  by  salaries,  yet  he  gave  much 
of  his  effort  to  getting  them  increased.  In  his 


128          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

time  occurred  the  great  increase  in  Boston  sal- 
aries. There  has  been  little  change  since  then, 
and  for  a  long  time  before  there  had  been  al- 
most no  increase.  During  his  term  in  Boston 
many  positions  had  the  salary  doubled,  and  all 
other  cities  were  influenced  by  this  action.  Here 
is  tangible  proof  of  his  devotion  to  the  teachers. 

SUPERINTENDENT   IN   BOSTON 

Mr.  Bishop  was  neither  happy  nor  successful 
as  superintendent  in  Boston,  and  he  soon  resigned 
his  position.  Mr.  Philbrick  was  invited  to  the 
place  by  a  unanimous  and  hearty  vote.  He  was 
then  only  thirty-eight  years  of  age. 

For  twenty-five  years  after  he  came  to  Bos- 
ton as  superintendent  of  schools,  he  was  one  of 
the  four  leading  public-school  men  of  the  coun- 
try. Henry  Barnard  alone  had  greater  promi- 
nence, and  the  fact  that  in  those  years  Mr.  Bar- 
nard's labors  were  not  concentrated  in  one  place 
or  in  one  direction,  but  were  partly  in  Wisconsin, 
partly  in  Maryland,  and  partly  at  Washington, 
gave  Mr.  Philbrick  greater  relative  distinction. 
Mr.  Wickersham  of  Pennsylvania  and  Dr.  Emer- 
son E.  White  of  Ohio  were  prominent  in  educa- 
tion at  this  time,  but  neither  occupied  one  emi- 
nent position  for  so  long  a  period  as  Mr.  Philbrick. 

For  ten  years  Mr.  Philbrick  was  a  member  of 
the  Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Education. 


JOHN    DUDLEY   PHILBRICK  129 

He  was  a  trustee  of  Bates  College  at  Lewiston, 
Maine,  and  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology  for  several  years.  He  was  president 
of  the  National  Educational  Association,  and  of 
many  other  educational  bodies.  He  was  Educa- 
tional Commissioner  from  Massachusetts  to  the 
Vienna  World's  Exposition,  in  1873,  and  Com- 
missioner of  the  United  States,  member  of  the 
international  jury  at  the  World's  Exposition  at 
Paris,  in  1878.  He  was  the  author  of  more  than 
forty  valuable  school  reports,  and  of  an  impor- 
tant volume  on  "The  School  Systems  of  the 
United  States." 

He  was  the  first  American  city  superintend- 
ent to  win  international  distinction,  and  his 
reputation  abroad  has  rarely  been  equaled 
among  educators. 

He  received  the  degree  of  LL.  D.  from 
Bates  College  in  1872,  and  the  same  degree 
from  a  university  in  Scotland  in  1879.  He  was 
made  an  honorary  officer  of  the  Legion  of  Honor 
in  France,  and  was  given  the  Gold  Palm  of  the 
University  of  France,  with  the  title,  Officer  of 
Public  Instruction,  in  1878. 

Thus  was  Dr.  Philbrick  highly  honored  by 
Massachusetts,  by  Maine,  by  the  United  States, 
by  Scotland,  and  by  France. 


130          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

TRIBUTES 

Dr.  Philbrick  died  in  Danvers,  Massachusetts, 
February  2,  1886.  He  had  been  superintendent 
of  the  Boston  schools  for  more  than  twenty 
years. 

At  the  funeral,  Oilman  H.  Tucker  spoke  of 
"his  noble,  illumined  face,  his  frank  and  winning 
manner,  his  hearty  clasp  of  the  hand,  his  serious 
words  lighted  up  with  flashes  of  pleasantry — the 
warm  welcome  of  his  whole  soul.  I  see  in  all, 
his  generous  and  sympathetic  spirit,  thoughtful 
of  all  but  himself,  constantly  planning  some  in- 
dividual or  public  benefit,  like  the  free  public 
library  which  he  established  in  his  native  town." 

Of  the  many  grand  tributes  paid  him,  none 
was  better  than  that  of  John  G.  Whittier,  the 
Quaker  poet,  who  was  a  neighbor  of  Dr.  Phil- 
brick.  He  said:  "He  was  a  busy  student, 
deeply  interested  in  the  cause  to  which  his  life 
had  been  devoted,  but  at  the  same  time  a  gen- 
ial, unpretending  gentleman,  and  a  very  pleas- 
ant addition  to  our  social  circle A 

good  and  true  man,  who  served  his  generation 
faithfully  and  successfully,  he  deserves  to  be  held 
in  grateful  remembrance." 


NEWTON   BATEMAN 

THE   PIONEER  AMONG  WESTERN   EDUCATIONAL 
LEADERS 


NEWTON   BATEMAN 


NEWTON  BATEMAN 

THE  PIONEER  OF  THE  WEST 
1822-1897 

Newton  Bateman  is  a  magical  name  in  the 
great  state  of  Illinois.  To  his  classmates  in  the 
college  at  Jacksonville  he  remained  always 
"Newt  Bateman";  to  his  co-workers  in  the  in- 
terest of  public  education  for  nearly  twenty 
years  he  was  simply  "Bateman";  to  the  gradu- 
ates of  Knox  College,  who  wellnigh  idolized 
him  for  eighteen  years,  he  was  "Little  Prexy"; 
and  to  the  educators  of  the  country,  who  view 
the  results  of  his  great  work,  he  is  Dr.  Bateman. 

Illinois  is  one  of  the  greatest  states  in  the 
Union.  It  is  nearly  four  hundred  miles  long, 
and  more  than  two  hundred  miles  wide,  and  of 
all  the  states  it  is  the  most  uniform  in  soil  and 
surface.  On  all  her  borders  are  mighty  rivers, 
which  have  contributed  to  her  commercial  and 
agricultural  wealth,  and  on  the  northeast  is  Lake 
Michigan,  which  has  helped  to  make  Chicago 
the  second  city  in  size  and  importance  on  the 
continent.  Her  yield  in  mineral  and  agricul- 
tural products  is  fabulous. 

'33 


134          GREAT   AMERICAN   EDUCATORS 

A  century  ago  the  total  population  of  this 
vast  region  of  more  than  55,000  square  miles 
was  less  than  2,500  people.  Forty  years  later 
it  was  less  than  half  a  million.  Then  came  a 
rapid  growth,  until  at  the  end  of  the  century  the 
population  of  Illinois  numbered  five  and  a  half 
millions. 

But  the  real  grandeur  of  Illinois  is  in  her 
men  and  in  the  noble  quality  of  manhood  which 
she  produces;  and  two  of  the  most  important 
forces  in  her  growth  and  progress  have  been 
the  public  schools  and  the  colleges.  In  both  of 
these  the  name  that  stands  highest  in  influence 
is  that  of  Newton  Bateman,  who  was  for  four- 
teen critical  years  the  State  Superintendent  of 
Schools,  and  for  eighteen  years  president  of 
Knox  College. 

There  are  in  the  state  now  one  million  three 
hundred  thousand  children  of  school  age,  and 
in  the  public  schools  there  are  twenty-six  thou- 
sand teachers.  The  public  school  property  is 
valued  at  $45,000,000,  and  the  total  cost  of  the 
schools  each  year  is  more  than  $16,000,000. 

Every  child  in  the  public  schools  is  better 
taught  because  Newton  Bateman  was  state  super- 
intendent. The  work  of  the  thirty-one  colleges 
,in  Illinois  is  better  because  Dr.  Bateman  was 
president  of  one  of  them. 


NEWTON   BATEMAN  135 

CHILDHOOD 

Newton  Bateman  was  born  in  Bridgeton,  in 
southern  New  Jersey,  July  27,  1822.  His  father 
was  a  weaver,  and  the  opportunities  for  earning 
a  living  at  the  trade  grew  less  and  less  each 
year.  Inventions  and  the  introduction  of  ma- 
chinery superseded  weaving  by  hand,  and  threw 
many  men  out  of  employment.  It  was  hard  for 
the  Bateman  family,  and  they  became  very  poor. 

In  1833,  Bergin  Bateman  gave  up  the  struggle 
to  get  a  living  by  weaving,  and  with  his  wife  and 
five  children  traveled  nearly  a  thousand  miles 
to  the  western  plains.  It  was  a  terrible  journey. 
The  mother  was  taken  sick  with  Asiatic  cholera 
on  the  way,  and  as  there  was  no  place  to  stop, 
they  kept  traveling.  She  died,  and  it  was  a  sad 
little  family  that  stopped  at  Meredosia,  on  the 
Illinois  River,  to  make  a  new  home. 

They  had  no  money  with  which  to  build  a 
home,  and  life  was  very  hard  for  them.  They 
had  little  to  eat  and  to  wear,  and  a  miserable 
place  in  which  to  live.  It  was  a  hard  experience 
for  Newton,  who  was  the  youngest  of  the  family 
and  only  ten  years  old.  He  had  been  at  school 
very  little  in  New  Jersey,  and  during  his  first 
years'  on  the  frontier  there  was  no  chance  for 
schooling. 

After  a  few  years  he  became  an  errand  boy 


136          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

in  the  family  of  a  lawyer  at  Jacksonville.  This 
lawyer  was  one  of  the  well-to-do  men  of  central 
Illinois  and  had  a  fine  house  for  those  days. 
He  had  also  a  beautiful  daughter,  and  his  errand 
boy,  hardly  fourteen  years  old  and  almost  a 
dwarf  in  appearance,  became  very  much  in  love 
with  her.  This  feeling  inspired  the  lad  with  a 
desire  to  be  something  more  than  a  poor  ignorant 
errand  boy.  He  resolved  to  learn  something, 
to  go  to  college,  and  to  study  for  a  profession. 
It  did  not  seem  ridiculous  to  him  to  plan  to  go  to 
college,  although  he  must  spend  at  least  three 
years  in  preparation,  and  had  not  a  dollar  in  the 
world  with  which  to  pay  his  expenses. 

HIS  EDUCATION 

Newton  Bateman  never  told  much  about 
those  first  years  in  the  preparatory  school.  He 
did  any  work  he  could  to  earn  a  few  cents,  and 
he  lived  on  almost  nothing.  He  once  said  that 
he  had  often  chopped  wood  on  cold  winter  days, 
with  nothing  to  eat  but  a  handful  of  corn  meal 
at  noon. 

At  seventeen  years  of  age  he  entered  Illinois 
College  at  Jacksonville.  This  was  the  first  col- 
lege in  the  state  to  form  regular  classes  and 
have  a  graduation.  The  first  class  was  gradu- 
ated in  1835,  the  year  that  the  little  errand  boy 
was  in  love  with  the  lawyer's  daughter.  Four 


NEWTON    BATEMAN  137 

years  later  he  entered  the  college  in  a  class  of 
ten,  all  poor  boys.  In  college  and  preparatory 
school  together,  there  were  fewer  than  seventy 
students. 

Newton  Bateman  always  boarded  himself. 
He  was  living  high  when  his  food  cost  ten  cents 
a  day,  and  at  one  time  his  food  for  two  weeks 
cost  less  than  two  cents  a  day.  He  bought  corn, 
beat  it  into  meal  himself,  and  ate  this  for  two 
weeks  without  milk,  butter,  sugar,  or  molasses. 
There  was  rarely  a  time  from  his  early  child- 
hood until  after  he  graduated  from  college  when 
he  had  enough  good  food  to  eat.  The  only 
light  he  had  to  study  by  was  made  by  burning 
lard  in  a  saucer,  with  a  twisted  rag  hanging  over 
the  side  for  a  wick.  He  never  had  a  penny  for 
luxury,  or  for  the  common  comforts  of  life. 

With  all  his  hardships,  he  was  the  wit  and 
humorist  of  his  class.  His  good  nature  and  jol- 
lity were  irrepressible.  At  times,  when  he  could 
see  no  possibility  of  getting  through  college,  and 
still  less  of  winning  the  social  position  that  he 
wanted,  he  would  be  despondent.  This  was 
only  for  a  brief  season,  and  then  he  would  be 
brighter  and  more  full  of  fun  than  ever.  Dr. 
Thomas  K.  Beecher,  a  talented  brother  of 
Henry  Ward  Beecher,  was  a  classmate  of  Mr. 
Bateman's  in  college,  and  he  says  that  his  "ex- 
uberance of  the  comic  was  a  relief  to  his  super- 


138  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

sensitive  nature,  and  lightened  many  a  load 
which  others  would  have  carried  with  clenched 
teeth  and  knitted  brow."  He  was  a  youth  of 
rare  good  spirits  and  self-control. 

This  was  the  way  "  Newt  Bateman"  got  his 
education.  He  graduated  in  the  class  of  1843, 
at  the  age  of  twenty-one.  It  seems  incredible 
that  a  youth  with  his  late  start  and  uninterrupted 
hardships  could  have  completed  his  college 
course  by  the  time  he  was  twenty-one.  It  was 
a  tribute  to  his  scholarship  and  manliness  that 
in  his  senior  year  he  was  chosen  to  take  charge, 
for  the  year,  of  a  class  in  Latin  in  the  prepara- 
tory department. 

THE   YEARS   OF   STRUGGLE 

Mr.  Bateman  wanted  to  teach  after  graduat- 
ing, but  he  could  not  get  a  school.  He  could 
not  wait  in  idleness  for  something  to  do,  and  the 
only  work  he  could  find  was  that  of  a  book 
agent.  For  two  years  he  traveled  through  Ohio, 
Kentucky,  and  Pennsylvania  trying  to  sell  an 
Historical  Chart.  This  was  from  the  summer 
of  1843  to  the  summer  of  1845,  a  period  of  very 
hard  times  in  those  states,  and  no  one  wanted 
historical. charts.  A  book  of  fads,  a  household 
physician,  or  a  universal  letter  -  writer  might 
have  sold  better;  but  as  it  was,  he  had  a  fright- 
fully hard  time. 


He  was  often  shabbily  treated,  and  sometimes 
he  was  almost  starving,  so  that  he  feared  he 
would  have  to  beg.  His  love  of  fun  served  him 
many  a  good  turn.  It  made  him  friends  and 
kept  his  courage  up.  He  was  not  a  success, 
however,  as  a  book  agent. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-three  he  decided  that  if 
no  school  came  to  him,  he  must  make  one  of  his 
own;  and  in  1845  he  established  a  private  school 
in  St.  Louis.  The  next  two  years  were  as  hard 
a  struggle  as  those  which  had  gone  before.  The 
little  money  that  he  received  had  to  go  to  keeping 
up  appearances. 

The  story  of  these  years  would  make  inter- 
esting reading,  but  Mr.  Bateman  has  told  us 
nothing  about  them.  Remembering  his  abhor- 
rence of  all  pretense  and  his  sense  of  humor, 
we  can  picture  the  young  man,  poor  but  plucky, 
making  the  best  of  what  he  had  before  the 
students  and  their  parents,  and  then  laughing 
right  heartily  about  it  when  alone. 

His  school  was  not  successful  financially,  any 
more  than  anything  else  he  had  ever  done.  But 
his  teaching  was  a  success.  Having  a  private 
school  brought  him  into  company  with  bright 
educational  men,  and  soon  his  prospects  im- 
proved. 


140          GREAT  AMERICAN   EDUCATORS 

PROSPERITY 

After  he  had  taught  a  private  school  two 
years,  Newton  Bateman  was  elected  professor  in 
the  University  of  Missouri.  Now,  for  the  first 
time,  he  had  a  fair  start;  but  he  was  safer  in 
adversity  than  in  prosperity.  His  vivacity,  wit, 
and  social  spirit  made  him  welcome  everywhere, 
especially  in  convivial  circles,  where  temptations 
abounded.  Those  who  loved  him  best  thought 
for  a  time  that  he  was  going  over  the  perilous 
verge  of  dissipation.  But  he  was  wise  enough 
to  see  his  danger,  and  to  avoid  it. 

He  had  long  since  abandoned  all  hope  of 
winning  the  lawyer's  daughter  and  had  out- 
grown his  early  fancy;  and  she  had  married 
another  man.  When  he  realized  the  danger  of 
the  life  he  was  leading,  he  wanted  a  home.  He 
married  a  noble  young  woman,  and  settled  down 
at  the  college. 

After  he  had  been  four  years  at  the  University 
of  Missouri,  he  was  invited  to  take  charge  of  the 
first  free  school  in  Jacksonville,  Illinois.  This 
was  in  1851.  He  had  been  away  from  Illinois 
and  from  the  town  of  his  college  life  for  eight 
years,  and  he  was  glad  to  go  back. 

The  state  then  had  a  population  of  little  more 
than  850,000.  It  had  no  free-school  law,  no 
normal  school,  no  state  college,  no  state  super- 


NEWTON   BATEMAN  141 

intendent,  and  no  effective  state  teachers'  asso- 
ciation. 

Mr.  Bateman  was  under  thirty  years  of  age, 
but  he  was  old  in  battling  with  hardships.  His 
vivacity  had  become  brilliancy,  his  wit  was  trans- 
formed into  power,  his  expectancy  of  reverses 
into  faith  in  his  every  effort.  Brilliancy,  power, 
and  faith  gave  him  a  mighty  influence  from  the 
first. 

He  soon  became  the  county  superintendent. 
He  was  one  of  the  leaders  in  establishing  the 
state  normal  school  at  Bloomington.  He  was 
active  in  founding  the  University  of  Illinois,  at 
Champaign,  and  he  became  a  prominent  factor 
in  making  the  state  teachers'  association  the 
power  that  it  has  continued  to  be  in  educational 
progress. 

STATE  SUPERINTENDENT 

In  1859,  Mr.  Bateman  became  State  Superin- 
tendent of  Schools  in  Illinois.  The  state  free- 
school  law  had  been  in  operation  only  four  years, 
and  there  was  a  great  work  to  be  done  in  carry- 
ing it  out.  He  was  now  thirty-seven  years  old, 
and  he  put  heart  and  soul  into  his  work.  In- 
telligently and  affectionately  he  occupied  this 
position  until  1875,  with  two  years  interim  in 
1863  and  1864.  In  these  sixteen  years  he  organ- 
ized and  developed  the  school  system  of  Illinois, 


142          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

as  Horace  Mann  had  done  in  Massachusetts,  and 
Henry  Barnard  in  Connecticut. 

Those  were  great  years  for  education  through- 
out the  land.  Henry  Barnard  was  a  national 
figure;  Dr.  Sheldon  was  leading  New  York 
state  a  noble  race  in  educational  progress;  Dr. 
Philbrick  was  giving  Boston  an  international 
reputation  educationally;  Dr.  Wickersham  was 
bringing  Pennsylvania  to  the  front;  and  John 
Swett  was  establishing  the  school  system  of 
California. 

Times  make  men,  but  it  takes  a  great  man 
to  get  in  step  with  an  epoch-making  period. 
Few  men  in  the  United  States  have  had  their 
hand  on  the  educational  system  of  a  state  for  so 
many  years  as  did  Dr.  Bateman,  and  aside  from 
Horace  Mann,  no  other  man  has  had  so  influential 
a  part  in  maturing  a  great  educational  system. 
He  had  a  genius  for  being  on  the  right  side  of 
every  question,  and  for  commanding  the  loyalty 
of  all  educational  forces.  Where  Mr.  Mann  was 
weak,  Mr.  Bateman  was  strong.  He  always  had 
the  teachers  as  a  loyal  body-guard. 

Mr.  Bateman,  like  Horace  Mann,  will  live  in 
educational  history  because  of  his  school  reports 
for  the  sixteen  years  that  he  was  state  superin- 
tendent. He  wrote  two  more  reports  than  Mr. 
Mann,  and,  like  his,  each  presented  some  great 
phase  of  education.  They  will  always  be  the 


NEWTON    BATEMAN  143 

original  sources  to  which  students  will  go  for 
light  and  inspiration,  when  studying  American 
education  from  1859  to  1875.  In  every  line 
they  have  the  ring  of  a  great  leader.  Besides 
these  reports  as  superintendent  of  public  in- 
struction, he  published  "  School  Laws  of  Illi- 
nois as  Amended  in  1865,"  and  in  1888  a  valu- 
able compendium  of  "School  Laws  and  Common 
School  Decisions  of  the  State  of  Illinois." 

Dr.  Bateman's  motto  was :  "  Education 
should  be  true  in  its  conception,  wise  in  its 
adaptation,  and  sound  in  its  methods." 

AS   COLLEGE    PRESIDENT 

In  1875,  with  a  remarkable  record  as  state 
superintendent,  he  accepted  the  presidency  of 
Knox  College,  one  of  the  oldest  institutions  in 
the  state  of  Illinois.  He  was  the  man  for  the 
place  and  the  college  took  a  leading  position  at 
once.  Money  came  freely  from  the  wealthy. 
The  standard  of  scholarship  rose.  Students 
came  in  large  numbers,  and  the  graduates  won 
early  and  substantial  success. 

For  eighteen  years  Dr.  Bateman  was  a  power, 
not  only  in  the  college,  but  through  Illinois  and 
the  adjoining  states.  He  held  this  position  until 
the  year  of  the  Columbian  Exposition,  1893. 
Then,  having  passed  the  age  of  three  score  years 
and  ten,  he  insisted  upon  yielding  the  administra- 


144    GREAT  AMERICAN  EDUCATORS 

tion  to  younger  hands,  while  he  remained  as  a 
professor,  doing  class  work  with  as  much  effec- 
tiveness as  ever. 

THE    END 

Soon  after  his  seventy-fifth  birthday,  on 
October  21,  1897,  the  life  of  Newton  Bateman 
came  to  a  peaceful  end. 

Dr.  Bateman  has  been  called  the  Horace 
Mann  of  the  West,  and  the  Abraham  Lincoln 
among  educators.  He  came  to  know  Abraham 
Lincoln,  the  greatest  son  of  Illinois,  when  the 
latter  was  nominated  for  the  presidency  in  1860. 
Mr.  Bateman' s  front  office  at  the  state  house  was 
used  as  a  reception  room  for  the  candidate  after 
the  nominating  convention,  and  through  the 
campaign  Lincoln  and  Bateman  were  often  to- 
gether. The  respect  and  admiration  of  the  two 
men  developed  into  affection;  and  this  friendship 
was  greatly  prized  as  a  memory  by  Mr.  Bateman 
through  life. 

Those  who  knew  Newton  Bateman  best,  who 
knew  of  his  early  struggles  and  his  ultimate 
success,  were  wont  to  liken  him  to  Abraham 
Lincoln.  No  higher  tribute  could  be  paid  a 
school  man  than  to  characterize  him,  either  as 
the  Horace  Mann  of  the  West,  or  as  the  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  among  educators.  How  great  the 
honor  of  being  styled  both! 


EDWARD  A.  SHELDON 

THE   FOUNDER   OF  THE  OSWEGO  TEACHERS' 
TRAINING  SCHOOL 


EDWARD  A.  SHELDON 


EDWARD  A.  SHELDON 

1823-1897 

As  nearly  as  anything  in  human  progress  can 
be  accidental,  Dr.  Sheldon  as  an  educational 
leader  was  an  accident.  The  purpose  of  his  life 
up  to  the  time  he  left  college  was  to  be  a  law- 
yer, and  a  good  success  he  would  have  ~made  of 
it.  Breaking  down  in  health,  he  was  forced  to 
leave  college  at  the  end  of  his  third  year,  and 
to  give  up  his  plans  for  the  law.  At  twenty- 
four  years  of  age  he  obtained  employment  in 
a  nursery  at  Oswego,  New  York,  attracted  to 
the  growing  of  trees  and  plants  by  his  love  for 
the  growth  and  development  of  life. 

Mr.  Sheldon  was  a  religious  and  philanthropic 
man,  and  no  business  could  take  all  his  thought. 
The  neglected  children  in  the  poor  districts  of 
Oswego  interested  him.  This  was  in  1848  and 
1 849.  A  large  number  of  immigrants  had  recently 
arrived  from  Europe,  and  had  settled  in  one 
section  of  Oswego.  They  came  to  this  country 
without  money,  and  as  they  knew  nothing  of  our 
ways  and  our  language,  they  could  earn  very 
little  at  first.  The  children  were  poorly  clothed, 
and  did  not  go  to  school. 


148          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

Mr.  Sheldon,  going  to  and  from  the  nursery, 
became  interested  in  these  poor  children.  He 
knew  they  would  become  the  strength  of  our 
civilization  if  they  were  rightly  used.  First  of 
all,  they  must  be  educated.  How?  There  was 
no  public  school  for  them,  and  no  parochial 
school.  He  talked  about  it  to  his  friends,  and 
succeeded  in  forming  an  "  Orphan  and  Free 
School  Association."  They  planned  a  school 
which  was  to  be  free  for  these  children;  but  they 
could  not  find  the  right  teacher.  The  first  one 
was  a  failure,  and  the  second  was  no  better. 

There  were  in  the  school  one  hundred  and 
twenty  untamed  foreigners,  from  five  to  twenty- 
one  years  of  age,  none  of  whom  had  before  been 
in  an  American  school.  They  could  not  sit  still, 
did  not  know  how  to  study,  and  were  always 
ready  for  a  fight.  It  is  no  wonder  that  two  ex- 
perienced teachers  refused  to  stay  when  they 
saw  the  situation.  The  school  needed  two  or 
three  teachers,  but  the  new  association  could 
not  afford  to  hire  them.  The  officers  knew  that 
a  single  teacher  could  not  control  such  a  mob, 
and  so  they  voted  to  give  up  the  school. 

Then  it  was  that  the  young  nurseryman, 
twenty-five  years  old,  who  had  never  thought  of 
such  a  thing  as  teaching,  offered  to  try  it  rather 
than  to  see  the  school  fail. 


EDWARD  A.  SHELDON  149 

HIS  EDUCATION 

Mr.  Sheldon's  father  and  mother  were  New 
England  people,  who  had  settled  on  a  farm  in 
Genesee  county,  in  New  York;  and  there  he  was 
born  in  October,  1823.  It  is  noticeable  how 
many  of  the  educational  leaders  came  from  New 
England;  Horace  Mann  and  Mary  Lyon  were 
born  in  New  England,  and  so  were  Henry  Barn- 
ard, David  P.  Page,  Mark  Hopkins,  John  D.  Phil- 
brick,  and  William  T.  Harris.  Mr.  Sheldon  was 
of  New  England  stock. 

New  York  is,  indeed,  an  Empire  State  with 
her  vast  area  and  population;  and  in  her  enter- 
prises, her  institutions,  and  her  philanthropies, 
she  is  wellnigh  imperial.  But  her  country 
schools  seventy  years  ago  were  very,  very  poor, 
and  the  boy  Sheldon  got  little  education  in  his 
early  years.  So  unattractive  was  the  school- 
house,  and  so  uninteresting  were  the  teaching 
and  studying,  that  he  remarked  afterward  that 
he  had  "gone  to  school  to  an  ash  heap." 

He  was  seventeen  years  old  when  he  first 
went  to  a  good  school.  This  was  an  academy 
in  a  neighboring  town;  and  there  he  studied 
Greek  and  Latin,  algebra,  and  sciences.  He 
was  very  happy  in  this  work,  and  in  four  years 
was  fitted  for  college. 

He  entered  Hamilton  College  in  1844,  with 


150          GREAT  AMERICAN   EDUCATORS 

the  purpose  of  studying  law  after  he  had  com- 
pleted the  college  course.  It  was  a  great  dis- 
appointment to  him  that,  after  three  years,  his 
health  gave  out,  and  he  had  to  leave  college 
and  give  up  the  thought  of  becoming  a  lawyer. 

HIS  FIRST  SCHOOL 

Mr.  Sheldon  knew  nothing  about  good  public 
schools,  or  about  methods  of  teaching.  He  had 
no  theories  or  plans  when  he  stood  face  to  face 
with  that  school  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
children  from  the  slums,  but  he  was  confident 
that  he  could  do  them  some  good.  He  pro- 
claimed no  rules,  but  met  emergencies  as  they 
arose. 

When  two  boys  got  into  a  rough-and-tumble 
fight,  he  did  not  rush  at  them  as  if  ready  to 
take  a  hand  in  it,  nor  did  he  shout  at  them. 
The  master  merely  spoke  to  them  quietly,  in  a 
tone  that  held  their  attention,  and  told  them 
that  the  school  was  no  place  for  fighting,  and 
that  if  they  were  to  fight  at  all  they  must  wait 
until  they  were  away  from  the  school  and  from 
other  children.  More  than  once  when  several 
boys  became  restless,  he  sent  them  out  to  run  to 
a  certain  place  and  back  to  see  who  could  get 
into  school  first. 

He  never  punished  a  pupil,  or  spoke  one 
scolding  word  to  those  children.  He  pitied 


EDWARD  A.  SHELDON  151 

them  and  loved  them.  On  Saturdays,  he  visited 
their  homes  to  see  where  and  how  they  lived, 
and  to  learn  what  could  be  done  to  make  life 
pleasanter  and  happier  for  them. 

As  he  went  on  his  way  to  school  these  girls 
and  boys  swarmed  about  him.  Some  caught 
him  by  a  finger,  and  some  by  his  coat-tail,  all 
anxious  to  be  near  him.  The  storekeepers 
stood  in  their  doorways  and  laughed  at  the 
strange  sight.  He  was  happy  in  their  devotion 
to  him,  and  his  school  was  a  success. 

He  received  only  three  hundred  dollars  a  year" 
for  teaching  this  school,  and  that  was  twenty- 
five  dollars  more  than  he  asked  to  be  paid. 

SUPERINTENDENT  OF   SCHOOLS 

No  one  knew  so  well  as  Mr.  Sheldon  that  his 
school  did  little  for  the  real  education  of  the 
children  of  the  slums,  and  that  all  the  children 
of  the  city  needed  good  schools.  He  knew  that 
the  orphans  needed  a  home,  and  in  two  years  he 
had  one  started  for  them.  At  the  same  time 
he  arranged  for  a  system  of  graded  schools  in 
Oswego,  so  that  a  teacher  should  have  only  fifty 
or  sixty  pupils  in  a  room,  and  all  children  could 
go  to  school  free. 

After  two  years  of  teaching  in  Oswego,  dur- 
ing which  time  lie  had  married  and  made  a 
home  for  himself,  he  became  superintendent  of 


152          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

schools  at  Syracuse.  There  he  graded  the 
schools,  improved  them  in  many  other  ways, 
'  and  laid  the  plans  for  a  fine  high  school.  He 
also  wrote  the  first  annual  report  of  the  work  of 
city  schools. 

In  two  years  he  was  considered  one  of  the 
leaders  in  public  school  work  in  that  part  of  the 
state;  and  four  years  from  the  time  that  he  left 
the  nursery  business  to  experiment  with  a  school 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty  wild  foreigners,  he 
was  urged  to  come  back  to  Oswego  as  superin- 
tendent, to  organize  first-class  schools. 

It  was  in  1853  that  he  returned  to  Oswego, 
and  there  he  remained  in  school  work  until  he 
died,  in  August,  1897.  During  these  forty-four 
years  he  was  often  invited  to  other  places,  at 
much  larger  salaries;  but  he  remained  faithful 
to  his  work  at  Oswego.  When  Troy  wanted 
him  for  superintendent  of  schools,  when  Albany 
asked  him  to  become  president  of  her  great  nor- 
mal school,  and  when  a  state  university  offered 
him  a  professorship,  he  said  "  No,"  promptly. 

He  went  to  Oswego  to  do  a  life  work,  and 
there  he  lived  and  died.  He  was  superintend- 
ent for  seven  years,  and  then,  in  1860,  he  started 
the  Oswego  Normal  School,  which  has  been,  in 
many  respects,  the  grandest  of  all  the  American 
normal  schools. 


EDWARD  A.  SHELDON        153, 

METHODS  OF  TEACHING 

Mr.  Sheldon  was  not  satisfied  with  the  way 
his  teachers  taught  when  he  became  superin- 
tendent of  schools  at  Oswego.  He  was  now 
thirty  years  old.  He  had  never  seen  a  really 
good  public  school,  he  had  read  very  little  about 
school  work,  and  he  only  knew  that  he  was  dis- 
satisfied with  all  the  teaching  he  saw.  He  knew 
that  the  schools  ought  to  be  taught  better,  but 
he  did  not  blame  the  teachers,  for,  he  said,  they 
had  nothing  with  which  to  teach. 

He  was  thinking  of  preparing  some  books 
and  charts  himself,  when  he  found  what  he 
wanted  at  Toronto,  Canada.  These  new  things 
were  in  a  museum,  and  no  one  had  used  them. 
They  had  been  sent  over  from  London,  and  had 
been  carefully  put  in  show  cases.  Mr.  Sheldon 
was  not  long  in  getting  them  out,  and  in  finding 
a  way  to  buy  or  borrow  them.  He  went  back 
to  Oswego  with  charts,  new  books,  balls,  cards, 
pictures  of  animals,  building  blocks,  cocoons  of 
silkworms,  cotton  balls,  samples  of  grain,  and 
specimens  of  pottery  and  of  glassware. 

These  were  the  first  samples  of  such  helps  for 
teaching  in  the  United  States.  There  were  ten 
state  normal  schools  and  ten  private  normal 
schools  in  the  country,  but  none  of  them  had 
such  an  equipment.  This  was  in  1858,  twenty 


154    GREAT  AMERICAN  EDUCATORS 

years  after  Horace  Mann  began  to  talk  and 
write  about  the  new  ideas  in  education.  Henry 
Barnard  had  been  actively  at  work  for  as  many 
years.  David  P.  Page  had  established  the  great 
Albany  normal  school,  and  had  been  dead  ten 
years.  Yet  none  of  these  school  helps,  that  had 
been  in  use  in  Europe  for  fifty  years,  were  known 
in  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Sheldon  did  not  bring  all  these  things 
from  Toronto  to  put  them  in  a  museum.  He 
wanted  to  use  them  in  school.  A  new  world 
was  open  before  him.  For  the  first  time  he 
knew  what  he  wanted  for  his  schools;  he  knew 
that  some  one  knew  how  to  teach. 

The  Oswego  teachers  became  as  enthusiastic 
as  he  was,  and  eagerly  asked  how  these  new 
things  were  to  be  used.  He  could  not  tell  them, 
and  he  could  not  find  any  one  in  America  who 
knew  about  them.  He  tried  to  get  the  school 
board  of  Oswego  to  send  to  Germany  for  a  pupil 
of  Pestalozzi,  who  had  originated  this  method  of 
teaching.  They  had  no  money  for  it,  but  they 
said  he  might  do  whatever  he  wished,  provided 
it  did  not  cost  the  city  anything.  ' 

Not  a  teacher  in  Oswego  received  more  than 
$500  a  year,  and  many  only  $300;  yet  these 
teachers  gave  one  half  of  their  whole  year's 
salary  to  have  some  one  come  from  Europe  to 


EDWARD  A.  SHELDON  155 

teach  them  how  to  use  these  new  things.  In 
no  other  body  of  city  teachers  in  the  history  of 
the  United  States  has  there  ever  been  such  an 
enthusiasm  to  learn  how  to  teach.  Many  a 
teacher,  of  her  own  free  choice,  lived  for  a  year 
on  a  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  that  she  might 
learn  how  to  teach  according  to  the  principles 
of  Pestalozzi,  who  had  died  thirty  years  before. 
It  was  a  grand  sacrifice  which  they  made  under 
the  leadership  of  Mr.  Sheldon.  The  names  of 
those  teachers  should  be  engraved  on  a  tablet, 
that  they  may  be  remembered. 

As  a  result  of  these  efforts  Mr.  Sheldon  se- 
cured the  services  of  Miss  M.  E.  M.  Jones,  of 
London.  Hermann  Kriisi,  a  pupil  of  Pestalozzi, 
was  so  encouraged  by  her  success  that  he  came 
to  America  soon  afterwards,  and  made  his  head- 
quarters at  Oswego  with  Mr.  Sheldon. 

None  of  the  teachers  learned  so  much,  or  won 
so  much  honor  from  the  coming  of  Miss  Jones 
and  Hermann  Krusi,  as  did  Mr.  Sheldon.  But 
for  this  event  he  would  probably  have  remained 
the  superintendent  of  that  small  city  all  his  life. 
Under  this  impetus  a  normal  school  that  was  to 
become  famous  was  started  the  next  year. 

The  self-sacrifice  of  the  teachers  of  Oswego 
in  1859,  marks  the  beginning  of  a  new  order  of 
things  in  education  in  the  United  States.  What 


156          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

Mr.  Mann,  Mr.  Page,  and  Mr.  Barnard  had  not 
accomplished  resulted  from  the  enthusiastic 
contributions  of  the  teachers  of  Oswego,  under 
the  inspiration  of  Mr.  Sheldon. 

HIS  SCHOOL  REPORTS 

A  study  of  Mr.  Sheldon's  early  school  reports 
at  Oswego  shows  him  to  be  a  master  of  every 
detail.  He  was,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  the 
first  professional  school  superintendent  in  the 
country.  He  had  never  seen  a  system  of  schools; 
had  never  been  a  student  in  a  good  public 
school;  had  read  few  books  on  education;  yet 
his  early  reports  are  as  practical  as  the  multi- 
plication table,  and  as  good  in  theoretical  work 
and  in  methods  as  if  he  had  been  trained  in  the 
best  normal  schools. 

In  discussing  the  question  of  salaries,  he 
says: 

"The  principal  item  of  expense  is,  as  it  must 
ever  be,  the  payment  of  teachers'  salaries.  This 
includes  something  more  than  half  of  the  entire 
expenditure,  and  may  seem  large  to  a  casual 
observer;  but  a  careful  investigation  and  a  little 
practical  experience  in  endeavoring  to  obtain 
good  teachers  will  dissipate  all  such  impressions. 
The  truth  is,  it  is  impossible  to  employ  good 
teachers,  those  who  will  make  our  schools  what 
they  are,  with  less  salaries  than  are  now  paid. 


EDWARD  A.  SHELDON  157 

The  board  pay  no  more  than  they  have  found 
it  necessary  to  offer  in  order  to  induce  teachers 
to  come  and  take  charge  of  our  schools.  If  they 
cannot  receive  these  prices  in  Oswego,  they  will 
go  to  other  cities,  where  they  can  receive  as 
much  or  more." 

It  is  interesting  to  know  that  the  highest 
salaries  paid  were,  to  one  man  $1,000;  to  three, 
$800;  to  one,  $600;  and  to  two,  $400.  Of  the 
women  teachers,  three  received  $325,  the  largest 
salary,  a  few  $300,  and  the  others  $275  and 
$225.  Low  as  were  these  salaries,  Mr.  Sheldon 
had  to  fight  for  them  each  year. 

To  fortify  his  position  and  to  show  that  the 
salaries  were  not  extravagant,  Mr.  Sheldon 
printed  the  salaries  paid  in  other  cities  in  1859. 
St.  Louis  paid  men  from  $750  to  $2,500  for 
teaching;  Chicago's  highest  salary  was  $1,800; 
and  New  York  city  and  Cincinnati  each  paid 
what  seemed  the  enormous  salary  of  $1,500. 
Many  other  cities  paid  more  than  $1,000,  which 
was  Oswego' s  highest  salary,  although  Albany 
and  Detroit,  at  that  time,  paid  only  $900,  and 
Troy  $700.  In  contrast  with  these  salaries  are 
the  highest  paid  to  women  teachers,  in  St.  Louis, 
$900;  Cincinnati,  $800;  New  York  city,  $750; 
Chicago  and  Columbus,  Ohio,  $500;  and  so  on, 
down  to  $300  in  Albany  and  Troy. 

Mr.  Sheldon's  publication  of  figures  regard- 


158          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

ing  educational  expenses  did  much  toward  start- 
ing the  movement  which  resulted  in  a  general 
increase  in  the  salaries  of  teachers. 

There  has  been  much  controversy  among 
superintendents  as  to  what  city  first  established 
unclassified  classes  for  pupils  not  fitting  the 
regular  grades.  They  have  assumed  that  the 
first  of  these  classes  was  formed  since  1890;  but 
Mr.  Sheldon,  in  his  reports,  writes  of  the  estab- 
lishment of  such  classes  in  Oswego  in  1858. 

In  another  matter  he  anticipated  present 
school  men.  In  1898  there  was  great  dis- 
cussion among  superintendents  in  regard  to 
classifying  and  promoting  pupils  in  such  a  way 
that  bright  ones  may  not  suffer  by  going  too 
slow,  and  dull  ones  by  being  forced  to  go  too 
fast.  All  this  was  discussed  by  Mr.  Sheldon  in 
one  of  his  school  reports,  before  1860. 

THE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

The  school  which  Mr.  Sheldon  started  in 
1 86 1,  for  the  purpose  of  teaching  the  new  Pesta- 
lozzian  principles  ,was  at  first  called  the  Oswego 
Training  School.  The  teachers  of  the  city 
schools  went  there  to  study,  and  students  came 
also  from  other  cities  and  other  states.  Mr. 
Sheldon  was  principal  of  the  school,  and  at  the 
same  time  continued  in  his  office  of  city  super 
intendent. 


EDWARD  A.  SHELDON  159 

In  1866,  the  state  of  New  York  made  this 
a  state  institution,  naming  it  a  normal  school; 
and  soon  after,  Mr.  Sheldon  resigned  as  super- 
intendent, to  give  all  his  time  to  the  school.  For 
almost  forty  years  he  remained  at  its  head. 

This  is  the  only  case  in  which  the  founder  of 
one  of  the  early  normal  schools  was  its  prin- 
cipal for  many  years.  The  New  England  normal 
schools  changed  principals  early  and  frequently. 
Mr.  Page  died  after  four  years  at  Albany;  and  the 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  and  Illinois  normal 
schools  did  not  long  retain  their  founders. 

The  graduates  of  this  school  have  spread  its 
methods  throughout  the  country.  When  it  was 
the  city  training  school,  the  graduates  of  its 
second  class  taught  in  twelve  states  besides  New 
York — as  far  away  as  Kansas,  Georgia,  and 
Mississippi.  Scarcely  a  normal  school  in  the 
country  has  not  counted  one  or  more  of  the 
graduates  of  Oswego  among  its  best  teachers. 
Many  of  the  best  school  books  have  been  written 
by  them  ;  and  many  of  the  leading  principals 
and  city  superintendents  received  their  training 
at  Oswego. 

In  the  later  years  of  Mr.  Sheldon's  life,  many 
cities  had  come  up  to  the  high  standard  of  Oswego 
in  educational  matters,  and  many  normal  schools 
were  practically  on  the  same  level  as  his;  hence 
it  is  not  easy  for  the  men  of  the  last  quarter  of 


160          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

the  century  to  appreciate  how  completely  Dr. 
Sheldon  led  the  educational  world  in  methods 
and  in  plans  during  the  previous  twenty-five 
years. 

AN  AUTHOR 

Mr.  Sheldon  was  honored  with  the  degree  of 
Ph.  D.  by  the  Regents  of  the  University  of  New 
York.  This  was  largely  because  of  his  pro- 
fessional literary  work.  As  soon  as  he  knew 
the  details  of  the  new  methods  of  teaching,  he 
wished  others  to  know  of  their  merit.  He  in- 
vited the  leading  educators  of  the  country  to 
visit  Oswego,  to  make  a  thorough  observation 
and  inquiry  regarding  the  work.  By  speaking 
on  many  public  occasions  he  created  a  general 
desire  to  know  about  the  new  ideas. 

This  led  to  his  preparation  of  the  first  books 
printed  in  America  upon  the  adaptation  of  Pesta- 
lozzian  principles  to  our  school  work.  These 
books  marked  an  era  in  American  education. 
At  once  the  Oswego  method  was  transformed 
from  a  local  affair  into  a  national,  and  even 
an  international  interest.  His  books  had  a  large 
sale  in  America,  and  a  good  sale  in  England. 
This  was  really  the  birth  of  educational  litera- 
ture in  America. 

It  is  not  easy  for  a  man  to  get  a  place  in 
history  who  remains  in  active  life  after  his 


EDWARD  A.  SHELDON  161 

great  work  has  been  done.  Garrison's  place  in 
history  will  be  greater  than  that  of  Wendell 
Phillips,  because  he  died  nearer  the  time  of  his 
great  service  to  the  cause  of  humanity.  Lin- 
coln's place  in  history  will  be  relatively  greater 
than  that  of  Grant,  because  he  died  as  soon  as  his 
special  work  was  accomplished.  Mr.  Page  will 
have  a  place  relatively  higher  than  Mr.  Sheldon 
in  professional  annals,  because  he.  died  at  the 
height  of  his  victories. 

In  the  details  of  Mr.  Page's  professional  work 
in  New  York  state  there  were  many  mistakes, 
which  he  himself  pointed  out,  but  in  the  work 
of  Mr.  Sheldon  there  were  practically  none. 
Mr.  Page  was  a  genius,  Mr.  Sheldon  was  a 
master.  A  genius  never  suffers  from  an  ex- 
periment, a  master  never  experiments.  A  gen- 
ius wins  admiration,  a  master  commands  it. 


JAMES   P.  WICKERSHAM 

PENNSYLVANIA'S  FAMOUS  EDUCATOR 


JAMES  P.  WICKERSHAM 

PENNSYLVANIA'S   FAMOUS   EDUCATOR 
1825-1891 

Pennsylvania  has  had  much  that  is  romantic 
in  her  educational  history.  Educational  legis- 
lation never  occasioned  a  more  thrilling  scene 
than  that  on  the  state  house  hill  in  Harrisburg, 
on  an  April  day  in  1835.  In  the  previous  year, 
the  state  legislature  established  a  public  school 
system,  and  provided  for  the  support  of  the 
schools  by  taxation.  The  next  legislature  was 
elected  to  repeal  this  law.  Thaddeus  Stevens, 
by  a  splendid  speech,  changed  the  votes  so  that 
the  law  was  saved.  "  His  speech,  delivered  in 
the  central  aisle  of  the  house  of  representa- 
tives at  Harrisburg,  in  April,  1835,  in  front  of 
the  speaker's  chair,  swept  everything  before  it, 
and  went  sounding  down  the  corridors  of  time 
like  the  trumpet  of  the  resurrection,  waking  the 
common-school  cause  to  newness  of  life,  and 
creating  in  the  popular  mind  a  sentiment  in  favor 
of  public-school  education  that  had  never  before 
existed,  and  that  has  not  died  out  to  this  day." 

The  women  of  Reading,  Pennsylvania,  were 
165 


1 66          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

so  much  pleased,  that  they  had  the  entire  speech 
printed  on  a  silk  banner,  which  they  presented 
to  Mr.  Stevens.  He  said,  late  in  life,  that  the 
two  things  of  which  he  was  the  most  proud  were 
that  speech,  and  the  printing  of  it  on  the  silk 
banner. 

BIRTHPLACE 

James  P.  Wickersham  was  a  lad  of  ten  years 
when  Thaddeus  Stevens  made  his  great  fight 
for  the  common  schools.  It  was  good  to  be  at 
school  when  people  were  beginning  to  realize 
the  need  of  public  education. 

He  was  born  in  Chester  county,  Pennsyl- 
vania, March  5,  1825.  Chester  is  one  of  the 
best  counties  in  the  country.  -In  soil  and  climate 
it  is  almost  ideal,  and  its  people  have  been  of 
the  best  class,  from  the  days  of  its  settlement 
until  now.  In  1700,  the  lad's  great-grandfather, 
Thomas  Wickersham,  built  the  first  house  west 
of  the  Brandywine  River,  in  what  was  then  the 
wilderness  of  Chester.  All  that  was  best  in  the 
the  spirit  and  wisdom  of  William  Penn  had  been 
in  this  people  for  over  a  century  when  James 
Wickersham  was  born. 

BOYHOOD 

James  Wickersham  was  the  oldest  of  many 
children.  Through  his  boyhood  he  worked  on 
the  farm  in  summer,  and  went  to  the  district 


JAMES    P.  WICKERSHAM  167 

school  in  winter.  .He  was  content  to  work  in 
the  potato  patch,  among  the  rows  of  corn,  and  in 
the  hay-field  a  part  of  the  year,  so  long  as  he 
could  look  forward  to  going  to  school  the  rest 
of  the  time. 

Things  changed,  however,  when  he  was  six- 
teen. The  district  school  could  teach  him  no 
more.  His  father  could  not  send  him  away 
to  school,  so  he  had  to  work  on  without  the 
prospect  of  further  education.  Must  he  always 
stay  with  the  potatoes,  corn,  and  hay?  He 
wanted  to  know  something  more.  He  wanted 
to  know  the  best  books  and  the  best  educated 
people.  This  could  never  happen,  if  at  sixteen 
he  settled  down  as  farm-hand  at  home.  Aspi- 
ration and  poverty  are  a  hard  combination,  and 
James  Wickersham  is  not  the  only  boy  who  has 
been  unhappy  because  he  must  settle  down  to  a 
life  of  toil. 

THE  FRIENDS'  MEETING 

The  boy's  family  were  Friends,  or,  as  they 
are  sometimes  called,  Quakers.  James  was  not 
in  the  habit  of  going  to  meeting,  but  one  autumn 
Sunday  when  he  was  unusually  despondent,  he 
walked  to  a  neighboring  town,  to  a  meeting  of 
Quakers.  The  principal  of  an  academy,  Jona- 
than Cause,  was  the  head  of  the  meeting,  as 
the  Friends  call  their  leader.  James  thought 


168          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

this  man  would  surely  say  something  that  would 
do  him  good. 

The  Friends  had  no  singing  at  their  meetings, 
and  they  did  not  talk  unless  they  had  something 
to  say.  Neither  Friend  Cause  nor  any  one  else 
spoke  at  this  meeting.  After  more  than  an  hour 
ot  silence,  the  head  of  the  meeting  shook  hands 
with  the  Friend  who  sat  nearest  to  him,  and  the 
meeting  was  ended.  It  had  been  very  dull  and 
very  disappointing  to  the  sixteen-year-old  boy. 
He  could  scarcely  restrain  his  tears  as  he  crossed 
the  yard  and  started  homeward. 

He  had  walked  but  a  little  way  when  some 
one  laid  a  hand  on  his  shoulder  and  said:  "James, 
I  have  been  thinking  of  thee  all  the  morning, 
and  that  was  the  reason  I  had  nothing  to  say. 
I  wonder  what  brought  thee  to  the  meeting. 
Something  must  be  troubling  thee.  Tell  me 
about  it." 

It  was  Jonathan  Cause,  the  head  of  the  meet- 
ing and  principal  of  the  academy.  James  told 
him  of  his  desire  to  go  to  school.  They  walked 
on  together,  and  talked  for  a  longer  time  than 
they  had  sat  in  silence  at  the  meeting. 

"  Now,  James,"  said  Friend  Cause,  as  they 
parted,  "  come  to  the  academy  this  autumn  and 
stay  as  long  as  it  pleases  thee." 

He  told  him  that  he  need  pay  nothing  until 
he  could  earn  money  by  teaching  school,  or  he 


JAMES    P.  WICKERSHAM  169 

might  pay  as  he  went  along  by  helping  about 
the  place  and  teaching  part  of  the  time. 

It  was  like  a  dream  to  the  lad.  He  could 
hardly  believe  that  it  was  true.  He  seemed  to 
be  walking  on  air  as  he  hastened  home  to  tell 
father  and  mother,  brothers  and  sisters,  the 
good  news  that  he  could  go  to  the  academy. 

When  did  a  sermon  ever  do  more  good  to 
any  one  than  the  silence  of  the  head  of  that 
meeting,  who  was  thinking  about  a  lad  and 
wondering  why  he  came  to  meeting. 

FURTHER  EDUCATION 

This  was  the  turning  point  in  the  life  of 
James  Wickersham.  He  went  to  the  academy 
for  six  terms,  and  this  was  all  the  educational 
training  he  had,  except  earlier,  in  the  little  dis- 
trict school.  He  was  always  a  student,  and  he 
became  a  scholarly  man. 

Washington  College  honored  his  scholarship 
by  conferring  upon  him  the  degree  of  Master  of 
Arts,  and  Lafayette  College  made  him  a  Doctor 
of  Laws.  His  scholarly  writings  showed  that 
he  was  in  every  way  entitled  to  these  honors, 
even  though  he  never  went  to  college. 

Jonathan  Cause  did  well  to  keep  silent  that 
morning,  and  plan  to  give  the  world  one  of 
America's  educational  leaders. 


1 70          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

AS  A  TEACHER 

While  still  in  his  teens,  young  Wickersham 
taught  three  country  schools  in  his  native  county 
of  Chester.  In  the  first,  the  school  board  voted 
that  his  was  the  best  school  under  their  charge; 
in  the  second,  he  was  awarded  a  premium  of 
four  dollars  for  the  best  teaching;  and  in  the 
third,  he  received  four  dollars  a  month  more 
than  any  other  teacher  in  the  township. 

At  the  age  of  twenty,  he  took  charge  of  a 
new  academy  at  Marietta,  Pennsylvania.  The 
first  year  there  were  only  twenty  pupils,  and  the 
"  Susquehanna  Institute,"  as  it  was  named,  occu- 
pied but  one  room.  The  third  year  he  had 
seventy-nine  pupils,  of  whom  thirty-five  were 
boarders.  This  young  man  of  twenty-three 
hen  purchased  a  beautiful  site  in  town,  and 
erected  a  large  boarding-house  and  a  building 
for  class  rooms.  He  also  started  a  library  with 
five  hundred  volumes.  Teachers  from  all  the 
country  about  came  there  as  pupils.  He  re- 
mained at  this  academy  nine  years. 

In  1854,  at  the  age  of  twenty-nine,  he  was 
made  the  first  superintendent  of  schools  in  Lan- 
caster county,  at  a  salary  of  $1,500.  His  energy, 
tact,  ability,  and  popularity  did  much  to  make 
the  county  superintendency  in  Pennsylvania  a 
permanent  success. 


JAMES    P.  WICKERSHAM  171 

Mr.  Wickersham  insisted  that  he  could  not 
make  the  schools  of  Lancaster  county  as  good 
as  they  ought  to  be  unless  his  teachers  were 
educated  in  a  normal  school.  In  his  second 
year  as  superintendent,  1855,  he  had  a  normal 
school  started  at  Millersville,  four  miles  from 
Lancaster.  In  1856  he  resigned  his  position  to 
become  principal  of  this  normal  school,  the  first 
in  the  state. 

The  next  year  a  state  normal  school  law  was 
passed,  and  on  December  2,  1859,  the  state 
board  adopted  the  Millersville  school,  which  had 
been  enlarged.  Mr.  Wickersham  did  a  great 
work  there,  and  he  remained  its  principal  until 
he  became  state  superintendent  of  public  schools, 
in  1866. 

AS  STATE  SUPERINTENDENT 

For  fifteen  years  Dr.  Wickersham  was  state 
superintendent  of  Pennsylvania,  which  was  in 
all  those  years  the  second  state  in  the  Union  in 
population  and  influence.  Few  men  have  had 
such  an  opportunity  to  mold  a  school  system. 

Dr.  Wickersham's  personality  was  a  large 
factor  in  his  success  in  the  normal  school,  and 
the  same  personality  impressed  itself  upon  the 
state  while  he  was  superintendent.  All  the 
schools  of  the  state  were  better  because  he  was 
state  superintendent.  Many  good  laws  were 


172  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

made  and  many  bad  practices  were  abolished 
by  him. 

A  million  children  in  Pennsylvania  each  year 
have  better  schoolhouses,  better  schoolbooks, 
and  better  teachers  than  the  children  had  before 
Mr.  Wickersham  was  state  superintendent.  The 
teachers  have  many  advantages  that  they  would 
not  have  had  but  for  him.  No  state  superin- 
tendent in  the  United  States  has  had  clearer  or 
higher  ideals  of  what  the  superintendent,  the 
teachers,  the  school  directors,  and  the  people 
should  do  for  the  schools. 

OTHER  LABORS 

The  "History  of  Education  in  Pennsylvania," 
which  Mr.  Wickersham  wrote,  is  one  of  the  best 
educational  histories  ever  published  in  America. 
His  book  on  "School  Management"  was  prob- 
ably the  best  professional  work  issued  up  to  that 
time,  and  it  remained  a  standard  for  a  quarter 
of  a  century.  This  is  the  only  American  pro- 
fessional book  ever  translated  into  Japanese  and 
used  by  the  government  of  Japan  as  the  official 
book  for  teachers  to  study. 

In  1882,  Dr.  Wickersham  was  appointed  by 
the  President  to  represent  this  government  at 
the  court  of  Denmark,  and  he  honored  his 
country  and  his  profession  in  this  position. 
After  his  return  he  served  the  public  in  many 


JAMES    P.  WICKERSHAM  173 

ways,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death,  in  1891,  he 
was  a  member  of  ten  important  boards  of 
trustees  of  state,  collegiate,  county,  and  city 
institutions. 

Dr.  Wickersham  was  a  natural  leader.  He 
was  always  much  respected  by  the  best  men  in 
the  state;  and  to  the  people  of  the  United  States 
he  was  the  best  known  of  the  educators  of 
Pennsylvania  for  forty  years.  He  made  educa- 
tional addresses  in  many  states,  North  and 
South,  and  had  great  influence  in  all  parts  of 
the  country. 

All  this  great  work  of  James  P.  Wickersham 
was  made  possible  by  the  thoughtful,  silent  head 
of  the  meeting  in  the  Friends'  meeting-house, 
on  a  Sunday  morning  in  1841.  Mr.  Cause  was 
well  repaid  for  giving  the  sixteen-year-old  lad  a 
chance  to  go  to  school.  Mr.  Wickersham  paid 
for  his  schooling  with  money  earned  by  teach- 
ing, and  by  the  great  good  he  did  in  teaching, 
talking,  and  writing  on  education  for  fifty  years. 

He  paid  for  his  own  education  in  other  ways. 
He,  in  turn,  helped  hundreds  of  young  teachers; 
and  a  large  number  of  prominent  men  in  Penn- 
sylvania to-day  owe  more  to  his  friendship  and 
help  than  the  world  will  ever  know.  Those 
whom  he  helped  are  constantly  passing  along 
the  good  work. 


FOUNDERS    AND    BENEFACTORS 

OF 

AMERICAN  COLLEGES 


STATUE   OF   JOHN   HARVARD 

HARVAI  D  UNIVERSITY,  CAMBRIDGE,  MASS. 


FOUNDERS    AND    BENEFACTORS 


OF 


AMERICAN   COLLEGES 

JOHN    HARVARD 

JOHN  HARVARD  has  the  post  of  honor  among 
American  college  men.  He  was  not  the  most 
learned  ;  indeed,  the  student  in  Harvard  Univer- 
sity to-day  knows  more  and  has  had  better  train- 
ing than  John  Harvard  dreamed  of.  Men  in  the 
United  States  have  given  ten  thousand  times  as 
much  money  to  a  college  as  he  did  ;  yet  John 
Harvard-  achieved  a  distinction  that  none  other 
has  equaled.  This  is  because  he  was  the  first  of 
the  educational  givers  of  the  New  World,  and 
because  of  the  mighty  work  that  has  grown 
from  his  modest  beginning. 

His  CAREER. — Of  the  history  and  personality 
of  John  Harvard  very  little  is  known.  His 
father  was  a  butcher  in  London,  where  he  was 
born  in  November,  1607.  When  about  twenty 
years  old  he  was  sent  to  the  Puritan  college  of 
Emanuel  in  the  University  of  Cambridge,  where 
he  received  the  degree  of  A.B.  in  1631,  and 

177 


178    GREAT  AMERICAN  EDUCATORS 

that  of  A.M.  in  1635.  He  was  soon  ordained 
a  dissenting  minister,  and  after  marrying,  he 
sailed  for  New  England  in  1637. 

He  was  made  a  freeman  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Bay  Colony  in  November  of  that  year, 
and  was  awarded  a  grant  of  land  in  Charles- 
town,  where  the  Harvard  church  and  the  Har- 
vard school  now  stand.  He  was  only  thirty  years 
old  and  in  feeble  health,  but  his  personality  and 
abilities  seem  to  have  made  him  prominent.  He 
took  part  in  public  affairs,  and  preached  occa- 
sionally, until  his  life  was  cut  short  by  consump- 
tion, September  26,  1638,  less  than  fourteen 
months  after  he  came  to  New  England.  His 
contemporaries  spoke  of  him  as  "reverend,"  "a 
godly  gentleman  and  a  lover  of  learning." 

THE  SCHOOL  AT  NEWTOWN.  —  Two  or  three 
miles  from  where  John  Harvard  lived,  a  school 
was  just  being  started.  As  soon  as  the  settlers 
about  Boston  had  built  their  houses  and  churches 
they  began  to  plan  for  schools,  and  particularly 
they  wanted  a  college.  The  General  Court,  or 
legislature,  voted  on  September  8,  1636,  to  give 
^400,  or  $2,000,  toward  a  college,  ^200  to  be 
paid  in  1637,  and  the  remainder  when  the  work 
of  building  was  finished.  This  was  as  much  as  the 
colony  voted  for  all  other  expenses  that  year. 

Without  waiting  for  the  college  building  to 
be  completed,  a  school  was  opened  in  1637,  with 


JOHN    HARVARD  179 

Nathaniel  Eaton  as  master.  He  had  just  come 
to  America  with  a  high  reputation  for  learning 
and  piety,  and  he  was  at  once  intrusted  with 
the  money  for  the  support  of  the  school,  and 
with  the  supervision  of  the  buildings.  So  well 
satisfied  were  the  authorities  with  his  manage- 
ment, that  in  1639  the  General  Court  voted 
him  five  hundred  acres  of  land,  provided  he 
would  hold  the  office  for  life. 

The  schoolboys,  on  the  other  hand,  held  an 
indignation  meeting,  and  complained  of  ill- 
treatment.  They  declared  that  the  food  was 
not  good,  and  that  he  looked  after  his  own  in- 
terests more  than  those  of  the  boys  or  the  col- 
lege. Six  months  after  he  was  hired  for  life, 
the  master  was  tried  on  the  charges  preferred 
by  the  boys,  found  guilty  of  beating  his  assistant 
and  of  other  offenses,  and  was  dismissed  in  dis- 
grace. He  is  never  reckoned  among  the  presi- 
dents of  the  college  which  grew  out  of  his 
school.  How  it  came  to  bear  the  name  of 
Harvard  remains  to  be  told. 

HARVARD'S  BEQUEST. — The  "  godly  gentleman 
and  lover  of  learning"  in  Charlestown,  who  died 
when  only  thirty-one  years  old,  left  one  half  his 
estate  and  all  his  library  to  the  new  college  that 
was  being  started.  The  property  amounted  to 
about  $4,250,  and  the  library  consisted  of  two 
hundred  and  sixty  well-chosen  volumes  from 


l8o          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

classical  and  theological  writers.  This  gift  was 
a  great  help,  and  it  put  new  activity  into  the 
project  for  a  college.  It  made  it  possible  to 
open  the  college  at  once  on  the  basis  of  the 
ancient  institutions  of  England. 

In  recognition  of  this  help,  and  in  gratitude, 
the  General  Court  ordered,  on  March  13,  1639, 
that  the  college  be  called  Harvard  College. 
The  name  of  the  town  had  been  changed  ten 
months  before  from  Newtown  to  Cambridge,  in 
honor  of  the  English  university  town. 

John  Harvard's  gift  was  supplemented  by  fif- 
teen hundred  dollars  from  another  New  Eng- 
lander,  and  by  lesser  gifts,  so  that  the  college 
opened  in  1640  in  good  condition,  with  Henry 
Dunster  as  the  first  president.  The  college  funds 
were  insufficient  for  its  running  expenses,  and  all 
New  England  was  called  upon  to  help  in  its 
support.  The  Connecticut  authorities,  in  1644, 
ordered  the  elders  of  every  community  to 
secure,  by  voluntary  contribution  if  possible, 
"one  peck  of  corn,  or  twelve  pence  money,  or 
other  commodity,"  from  every  family  to  help 
poor  scholars  in  the  college  at  Cambridge.  This 
contribution  of  college  corn  was  kept  up  for 
several  years.  New  Haven,  in  1644,  sent  forty 
bushels  of  wheat  to  Harvard  College.  In  Mas- 
sachusetts they  gave  what  they  could  best  spare, 
sometimes  a  cow  or  sheep,  corn  or  salt,  a  piece 


JOHN    HARVARD  181 

of  cloth  or  silver  plate,  or  some  treasured  heir- 
loom of  the  family. 

The  first  president  was  a  profound  scholar 
and  master  of  the  ancient  languages.  Latin  and 
Greek,  Hebrew,  Syriac,  and  Chaldee  were  in- 
cluded in  the  course  of  study.  From  the  first 
the  college  was  acknowledged  to  furnish  an 
education  "  not  inferior  to  that  of  the  distin- 
guished schools  in  Europe,"  and  so  great  was 
its  fame  that  young  men  were  sent  over  from 
England  to  be  educated. 

Since  that  time  Harvard  has  grown  to  be  a 
mighty  university,  with  scientific,  dental,  medi- 
cal, theological,  and  law  schools.  Its  gradu- 
ates number  twenty-three  thousand,  more  by 
far  than  can  be  claimed  by  any  other  university 
in  the  United  States;  and  in  1899  it  had  3,829 
students.  The  library  contains  more  than  half 
a  million  volumes,  and  since  many  of  these 
books  are  extremely  rare,  it  is  more  valuable 
even  than  its  size  would  indicate.  The  univer- 
sity now  has  more  than  fifteen  million  dollars' 
worth  of  property  and  securities. 

The  name  that  stands  for  all  this  wealth  of 
funds,  of  literature,  and  of  honor  is  that  of  a 
man  who  gave  the  college  only  $4,250  and  a 
small  library.  Not  often  have  a  few  books  and 
a  little  money  brought  so  much  glory  to  a  name 
as  these  have  brought  to  the  name  of  Harvard. 


182          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

ELIHU   YALE 

Yale  University  is  second  only  to  Harvard  in 
its  grand  record  of  two  thousand  five  hundred 
students  a  year,  and  a  total  of  nineteen  thou- 
sand graduates.  It  makes  famous,  the  world 
over,  the  name  of  a  man  to  whom  the  honor 
came  even  more  easily  than  the  similar  one 
came  to  John  Harvard. 

Elihu  Yale — Eli  for  short — had  neither  the 
college  education  nor  the  devotion  to  learning 
which  distinguished  the  founder  of  Harvard 
College.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  his  literary 
taste  is  not  indicated  by  the  lines  on  his  tomb- 
stone at  Wrexham,  Wales : 

"  Born  in  America,  in  Europe  bred, 
In  Africa  traveled,  in  Asia  wed," 

His  CAREER. — Elihu  Yale  was  born  in  or 
near  Boston,  April  5,  1649.  His  father  moved 
to  New  Haven  the  same  year,  and  two  years 
later  went  back  to  England,  taking  with  him  the 
three-year-old  boy,  who  never  saw  the  land  of 
his  birth  again. 

At  twenty-one  Elihu  went  to  India  to  seek 
his  fortune.  He  entered  the  service  of  the  East 
India  Company,  prospered,  and  was  promoted, 
until  at  thirty-eight  years  of  *  age  he  became 
governor  of  one  of  the  East  India  settlements. 


ELIHU  YALE 


1 84          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

He  married  in  Asia,  but  whether  he  ever  trav- 
eled in  Africa,  as  the  legend  on  his  tombstone 
says,  is  unknown. 

Governor  Yale,  in  1699,  returned  to  England 
with  a  "prodigious  estate,"  and  no  heir  to  his 
fortune.  Some  years  later  he  began  to  look  for 
an  heir,  and,  under  the  impression  that  he  had 
a  relative  in  Connecticut,  he  sent  to  Rev.  James 
Pierpont,  of  New  Haven,  for  information.  Mr. 
Pierpont  had  a  better  heir  to  suggest  than  an 
unknown  relative  ;  and  how  his  words  bore  fruit 
even  to  this  day  shall  be  told  later. 

THE  CONNECTICUT  COLLEGE. — As  early  as 
1656  the  men  of  the  Connecticut  colony  were 
talking  of  a  college  at  New  Haven,  but  the  Har- 
vard authorities  remonstrated,  declaring  that  a 
second  college  in  New  England  would  jeopard- 
ize Harvard.  The  Connecticut  people,  however, 
still  thought  that  Harvard  was  too  far  away,  and 
too  liberal  in  religious  matters. 

In  1701,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Russell,  of  Branford,  a 
graduate  of  Harvard,  invited  to  his  home  ten 
other  Connecticut  pastors,  nine  of  whom  were 
graduates  of  Harvard,  to  consider  the  advisa- 
bility of  asking  for  a  charter  for  a  college.  On 
the  appointed  day  each  man  came,  bringing  a 
few  of  the  best  books  from  his  own  small  library, 
and  as  he  placed  them  on  the  table  in  Mr.  Rus- 
sell's study,  said  solemnly  and  reverently:  "I 


ELIHU   YALE  185 

give  these  books  for  the  founding  of  a  college 
in  this  colony."  It  must  have  been  an  impressive 
scene. 

The  legislature  received  the  petition  for  a 
charter  on  October  gth,  but  it  showed  no  incli- 
nation to  act.  A  few  second-hand  theological 
books  did  not  seem  much  of  an  argument  for  a 
college  charter. 

Then  Major  James  Fitch  surprised  the  legis- 
lature with  a  proposal  to  give  six  hundred  and 
thirty-seven  acres  of  wild  land  in  a  remote  part 
of  the  colony,  and  to  furnish  without  cost  the 
glass  and  nails  for  a  college  house.  The  land 
was  of  little  value,  but  free  glass  and  nails  were 
a  weighty  argument,  and  the  legislature  on  that 
very  day,  October  16,  1701,  granted  the  charter. 
The  colony  also  granted  a  sum  equal  to  three 
hundred  dollars  in  good  money  for  the  use  of 
the  college,  and  exempted  the  students  from 
paying  taxes  and  from  military  service. 

The  college  was  nominally  located  at  Say- 
brook,  but  as  there  was  only  one  student  the 
first  year,  he  went  to  Killingworth,  nine  miles 
away,  to  the  home  of  the  rector,  Rev.  Abraham 
Pierson,  who  had  been  chosen  to  open  the  col- 
lege. In  September  the  first  commencement 
was  held  at  the  private  house  of  Mr.  Lynde, 
in  Saybrook.  Strange  to  say,  with  only  one 
student  in  college,  five  degrees  were  conferred 


186          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

at  that  commencement,  and  this  lone  student 
did  not  receive  one  of  them.  Four  graduates 
of  Harvard  were  given  the  degree  of  A.M., 
and  the  same  degree  was  conferred  upon  a 
young  man  who  had  never  been  to  Harvard 
or  any  other  college,  but  had  been  studying 
privately.  Such  a  commencement  would  be  im- 
possible now. 

The  next  year  more  students  came,  and  they 
were  taught  by  a  tutor  at  Saybrook,  while  the 
seniors  studied  at  the  rector's  house.  The  col- 
lege library  was  kept  at  Killingworth.  After 
six  years  Mr.  Pierson  died,  and  the  new  rector, 
who  lived  at  Milford,  several  miles  distant,  took 
the  seniors,  never  more  than  two  or  three  in 
number,  to  his  home.  He  went  to  Saybrook 
only  once  a  year  for  commencement,  and  at 
other  times  officiated  by  letter. 

In  1716  the  legislature  voted  to  establish  the 
college  at  New  Haven ;  but  four  students  re- 
mained at  Saybrook  with  one  professor,  fourteen 
went  to  Wethersfield,  and  were  provided  with 
two  professors,  and  thirteen  were  at  New  Haven. 
The  president  was  still  at  Milford  carrying  on 
his  duties  as  pastor  of  a  large  church.  So  great 
was  the  excitement  over  the  location  that  two 
commencements  were  held  the  next  year,  eight 
students  graduating  at  New  Haven  and  five  at 
Wethersfield. 


MARK    HOPKINS  187 

THE  OPPORTUNE  GIFT.  —  Sixteen  years  after 
the  charter  was  secured  for  a  college  in  Con- 
necticut it  was  still  a  nameless,  homeless  waif. 

At  just  this  time  came  a  letter  to  Elihu  Yale 
in  England,  saying,  "If  what  is  forming  at  New 
Haven  might  wear  the  name  of  Yale  College, 
it  would  be  better  than  a  name  of  sons  and 
daughters."  The  suggestion  pleased  him,  and 
he  sent,  in  1718,  a  cargo  of  presents  "for  the 
benefit  of  the  collegiate  school  at  New  Haven." 
They  included  some  rare  books,  a  portrait  of 
George  I.,  and  a  quantity  of  East  India  goods. 
He  valued  these  at  about  one  thousand  dollars, 
but  they  were  sold  at  auction  in  Boston  for 
$2,810.  A  few  years  later  he  gave  a  little  more, 
making  the  entire  amount  something  over  three 
thousand  dollars.  With  this  opportune  help  a 
college  building  in  New  Haven  was  completed, 
and  the  question  of  location  was  settled.  A 
name  was  decided  upon,  and  the  thousands  of 
graduates  of  Yale  College  have  since  made  that 
name  universally  honored. 

MARK    HOPKINS 

Mark  Hopkins  is  by  general  consent  regarded 
as  the  typical  American  college  president.  James 
A.  Garfield,  the  second  martyr  President  of  the 
United  States,  and  at  one  time  a  pupil  of  Mark 


1 88          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

Hopkins,  is  reported  to  have  said  that  a  student 
on  one  end  of  a  log  and  Mark  Hopkins  on  the 
other  would  make  a  university  anywhere. 

No  other  American  leader  has  been  so  closely 
identified  with  a  college  for  sixty-two  years  as 
was  Mark  Hopkins  with  Williams  College  —  a 
student  for  four  years,  professor  for  twenty-two 
years,  president  for  thirty-six  years. 

President  Hopkins  was  an  accurate  scholar,  a 
great  thinker,  a  remarkably  able  administrator, 
a  noble  man.  As  a  writer,  as  an  orator,  as  a 
teacher,  he  was  eminently  successful.  In  char- 
acter and  influence  he  was  as  nearly  ideal  as  can 
be  expected  of  a  man.  President  Barnard  of 
Columbia  suffers  in  the  total  estimate  of  his 
force  and  standing  because  his  life  was  divided 
between  two  different  sections  of  the  country, 
and  his  talent  and  influence  were  scattered  in 
several  places  and  occupations.  If  his  time  and 
thought  could  have  been  concentrated  on  Co- 
lumbia College  for  a  longer  period  his  influence 
might  have  paralleled  that  of  Mark  Hopkins. 
President  Hopkins  stands  matchless  in  single- 
ness of  purpose  and  in  the  length  of  time  he 
had  for  maturing  his  purpose  and  power. 

WILLIAMS  COLLEGE. — In  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  at  Fort  Massachusetts,  near 
the  foot  of  Hoosac  Mountain,  lived  one  Ephraim 
Williams,  a  captain  in  the  French  and  Indian 


MARK  HOPKINS 


1 90          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

wars,  and  now  in  command  of  a  line  of  forts 
west  of  the  Connecticut  River.  On  the  reopen- 
ing of  hostilities  in  1755,  he  received  a  commis- 
sion as  colonel,  and  was  sent  on  an  expedition 
against  Crown  Point.  When  he  reached  Albany, 
July  22d,  having  a  presentiment  that  something 
might  go  wrong,  he  made  his  will.  He  left  his 
property  for  the  founding  of  a  school  among  the 
settlers  about  Fort  Massachusetts,  with  whom 
his  military  life  had  been  mostly  passed.  He 
went  into  battle  on  September  8th  in  command 
of  one  thousand  white  men  and  two  hundred 
Mohawk  Indians,  and  at  the  first  shot  he  was 
killed.  His  property  was  allowed  to  increase  in 
value  until  1791,  when  a  school  was  opened  with 
a  good  endowment,  and  two  years  later  it  was 
chartered  as  a  college,  taking,  like  the  town,  the 
name  of  its  benefactor.  To  this  college  came 
the  young  student  Mark  Hopkins  twenty-eight 
years  later. 

MARK  HOPKINS'S  BOYHOOD. — Mark  Hopkins 
had  the  best  of  New  England  blood  in  his  veins. 
Since  John  Hopkins  settled  at  Cambridge,  in 
1634,  the  family  had  produced  men  of  influence 
and  distinction  in  each  generation.  Samuel 
Hopkins  in  the  eighteenth  century  was  one  of 
the  great  and  celebrated  preachers  of  New 
England.  The  grandfather  for  whom  Mark 
was  named  was  a  colonel  in  the  Revolutionary 


MARK    HOPKINS  191 

War,  and  the  ablest  lawyer  of  his  day  in  west- 
ern Massachusetts.  The  grandmother  was  the 
daughter  of  the  man  who  founded  the  Indian 
missionary  school  at  Stockbridge,  and  half-sis- 
ter to  Ephraim  Williams,  whose  money  went 
to  establish  the  college  at  Williamstown.  His 
mother  was  a  genuine  descendant  of  the  Puri- 
tans, a  woman  of  intelligence  and  forceful  char- 
acter. President  Hopkins  came  naturally  by 
his  ability  and  character. 

Mark  Hopkins  was  born  at  Stockbridge,  Feb- 
ruary 4,  1802.  When  he  was  four  years  old  he 
was  sent  to  the  district  school.  The  teacher 
called  the  boy  to  the  desk,  and  taking  up  the 
reading-book,  asked,  "  Where  can  you  read, 
my  little  fellow  ?  " 

"Just  where  you  please,  sir,"  was  his  prompt 
reply.  This  was  true ;  he  could  read  easily  at 
four  years  of  age,  and  was  from  the  first  at  the 
head  of  his  class. 

He  fitted  for  college  partly  at  the  Stock- 
bridge  academy,  where  he  was  the  friend  and 
rival  of  Frederick  Barnard.  A  schoolmate 
writing  of  them  says  : 

"  In  all  our  intellectual  contests,  debating 
societies,  and  spelling  classes,  the  two  future 
college  presidents,  Dr.  Hopkins  and  Dr.  Bar- 
nard, were  always  pitted  against  each  other  as 
leaders  of  the  contending  forces.  Our  conten- 


IQ2    GREAT*  AMERICAN  EDUCATORS 

tions  were  vigorous  and  earnest,  but  amiable 
and  good-natured,  resulting  in  a  pleasant  esprit 
de  corps  among  the  boy  students. 

"The  two  leaders  were  congenial  spirits;  both 
were  born  educators,  and  they  were  pure  and 
lovable  boys.  With  fine  physiques,  personally 
attractive,  amiable  in  temper,  genial  in  inter- 
course, refined  in  sentiment,  dignified  in  manner, 
firm  in  their  convictions  of  right  and  duty,  and 
unfaltering  in  the  pursuit  of  high  ideals,  they 
disarmed  envy  and  prejudice  and  made  only 
friends.  Their  lives  were  pure  in  every  way. 
They  indulged  in  no  profane,  vulgar,  or  harsh 
language ;  much  less  were  they  guilty  of  any 
low  or  unkind  conduct.  Tobacco  in  all  its  forms 
they  eschewed  instinctively. 

"  While  keenly  appreciating  wit  and  humor, 
and  both  relishing  and  telling  good  stories,  they 
had  no  tolerance  for  any  of  a  coarse  or  offensive 
character.  They  were  equally  intolerant  of 
jokes  that  could  pain  or  mortify  another.  They 
saw  neither  humor  nor  smartness  in  crushing  a 
comrade's  hat  over  his  eyes,  or  throwing  his  cap 
into  a  puddle,  or  pulling  his  hair  '  on  the  sly,' 
or  pinning  absurd  labels  on  his  back.  If  he  was 
weak  in  the  attic,  they  tried  to  help  and  en- 
courage him ;  if  he  was  intrusive,  conceited,  or 
overbearing,  they  would  play  the  part  of  Soc- 
rates with  him,  and  lead  him  into  some  intellec- 


MARK    HOPKINS  193 

tual  quagmire  from  which  he  could  escape  only 
by  admitting  that  he  did  not  know  everything." 

AT  COLLEGE. — After  teaching  school  for  a 
short  time,  Mark  Hopkins  entered  Williams  Col- 
lege as  a  sophomore,  in  1821,  at  the  age  of 
nineteen.  A  classmate  says  that  "he  came  into 
the  class  with  the  reputation  of  being  a  bright 
scholar,  and  continued  to  maintain  that  repu- 
tation. He  seemed  as  remarkable  for  his  mod- 
esty and  unassuming  manners  as  for  his  excel- 
lence in  scholarship.  He  was  studious  in  his 
habits  and  scrupulous  in  the  discharge  of  his 
duties,  kind  and  obliging,  and  always  ready  to 
bestow  favors.  This  he  often  did  by  way  of 
aiding  the  inefficient  of  his  class  in  acquiring 
their  lessons,  and  in  writing  the  essays  required 
gf  them  as  class  exercises. 

"  He  was  a  deep  thinker,  and  acknowledged 
to  be  the  best  literary  writer  in  his  class.  He 
never  indulged  in  sports  or  frolics  so  common 
among  college  students,  but  in  whatever  he  did 
or  said  he  always  observed  the  proprieties  of 
life.  In  matters  of  serious  import  he  was  con- 
siderate, and  in  his  religious  observances  rever- 
ent and  sincere.  Yet  he  appreciated  humor  and 
witticism,  and  enjoyed  a  hearty  laugh.  He  was 
quick  in  his  perceptions,  logical  in  his  conclu- 
sions, and  could  make  a  fine  point  and  see  a 
fine  point  without  spectacles. 


194          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

"  In  the  recitation-room  he  often  put  questions 
arising  out  of  our  lessons  to  the  learned  pro- 
fessor which  perplexed  him,  and  then  would 
answer  the  questions  himself  with  becoming 
deference.  In  his  course  of  reading  while  in 
college  he  manifested  little  or  no  relish  for 
novels,  but  seemed  to  prefer  standard  authors  in 
literature  and  science.  He  soon  evinced  a  de- 
cided love  for  the  study  of  metaphysics,  and 
read  all  the  books  on  that  subject  which  he 
could  find  in  the  college  library,  and  took  great 
pleasure  in  discussing  the  different  theories 
advanced  by  different  authors." 

He  graduated  in  1825  as  the  valedictorian  of 
his  class,  and  his  oration  was  admired  for  its 
beauty  of  language  and  the  elevation  of  its 
thought. 

FURTHER  STUDY.  —  After  graduation,  Mark 
Hopkins  remained  at  the  college  as  tutor  for 
two  years.  Then  for  three  years  he  studied 
medicine,  and  received  the  M.D.  degree.  Part 
of  this  time  he  was  also  teaching  to  help  pay  his 
expenses.  He  made  his  plans  to  settle  in  New 
York  as  a  physician,  with  every  qualification  for 
success  and  usefulness,  but  before  he  entered 
upon  this  profession  he  was  recalled  to  Williams 
as  professor  of  moral  philosophy.  He  was  then 
twenty-eight  years  old. 

Although  he  abandoned  the  practice  of  medi- 


MARK   HOPKINS  195 

cine,  his  knowledge  of  that  subject  was  of  great 
service  to  him  through  life.  He  used  this 
knowledge  to  good  purpose  in  his  moral  phi- 
losophy. 

During  the  next  three  years  at  college  he 
gave  considerable  attention  to  theology.  In 
1833  he  was  licensed  to  preach,  and  for  more 
than  fifty  years  he  delivered  mighty  ser- 
mons. 

As  A  TEACHER. — That  Mark  Hopkins  was  a 
great  teacher  is  testified  by  a  multitude  of  stu- 
dents besides  President  Garfield.  We  will  let 
one  of  these  students  speak  for  the  impression 
he  made: 

"  No  opinion  of  his  army  of  pupils,  oral  or 
written,  however  eulogistic,  can  adequately  por- 
tray the  actual  man,  the  living  instructor,  in  his 
recitation-room.  So  apt  in  illustration,  so  fertile 
in  collateral  resource,  so  ready  on  occasion  with 
his  spice  of  humor,  so  tactful  in  the  adaptation 
of  his  questions  to  the  caliber  of  his  respondent, 
so  original  and  independent  in  his  ideas  of  the 
topic  under  discussion,  so  skillful  in  drawing 
out  the  thoughts  and  queries  of  his  pupils,  he 
woke  interest  in  the  sluggish  and  provoked  at- 
tention in  the  thoughtless  and  indifferent.  Per- 
haps all  his  rare  abilities  in  this  regard  may  be 
summed  up  in  the  expression — he  made  men 
think." 


196          GREAT   AMERICAN   EDUCATORS 

He  showed  great  wisdom  and  tact  in  his  deal- 
ings with  the  students,  ruling  them  by  reason, 
kindness,  and  love.  His  attitude  was  that  of 
affection  rather  than  of  authority,  and  respect 
for  his  lovable  qualities  and  his  mental  ability 
secured  almost  universal  obedience.  "Indeed, 
perhaps  he  never  appeared  at  less  advantage 
than  in  the  management  of  a  fractious,  incor- 
rigible pupil,  utterly  unapproachable  by  moral 
suasion.  Punishment  was  truly  with  him  'a 
strange  work,'  and  seemed  to  cost  the  inflicter 
more  than  the  recipient.  But  rare  was  the  in- 
stance when  his  quiet  influence  and  paternal 
counsel  proved  unavailing." 

As  PRESIDENT. — For  fifty-eight  years  Mark 
Hopkins  was  so  closely  allied  with  Williams 
College  as  a  directing  force  that  the  college 
must  always  be  very  largely  what  he  made  it. 
No  other  college  has  been  more  fully  the  em- 
bodiment of  the  highest  New  England  ideal; 
and  this  is  because  Mark  Hopkins  had  his  hand 
upon  it  for  more  than  half  a  century  and  be- 
cause his  association  with  it  began  when  the 
college  was  less  than  thirty  years  old. 

In  the  days  when  Williams  College  was 
founded  there  was  no  theological  seminary,  no 
law  school,  and  but  one  medical  school  in  the 
United  States.  The  colleges  trained  men 
directly  for  the  ministry  and  for  law,  except  so 


MARK    HOPKINS  197 

far  as  they  studied  in  the  offices  of  eminent 
lawyers.  In  those  days  religious  families  more 
generally  sent  their  sons  to  college,  and  these 
institutions  were  primarily  religious. 

No  man  ever  had  a  clearer  ideal  as  to  college 
life  and  work  than  Mark  Hopkins.  He  stood 
for  liberal  rather  than  technical  education,  for 
the  enlargement  and  expansion  of  the  entire 
man,  for  the  harmonious  use  of  all  his  powers. 
He  believed  that  education  should  give  a  man 
"concentration,  general  power,  ability  to  enjoy 
society  and  the  thoughts  of  God,  manliness  and 
gentlemanliness." 

He  always  regarded  his  students  as  persons 
and  not  as  people.  He  was  interested  in  each 
individual,  and  had  a  sense  of  responsibility  for 
each;  and  he  inspired  his  professors  with  the 
same  feeling.  The  students  in  return  loved  and 
revered  him  with  a  devotion  that  few  men  can 
win  and  hold. 

No  man  ever  more  genuinely  loved  young 
men.  He  would  never  willingly  endanger  a 
boy's  moral  life  for  the  purpose  of  enhancing 
the  intellectual.  He  preferred  that  a  young 
man  should  be  good  rather  than  great.  To  him 
a  college  must  be  first  safe,  then  stimulating. 
He  worked  out  his  plan  of  administration,  his 
scheme  of  philosophy,  his  theories  of  the 
humanities  with  his  thought  always  on  the  best 


1 98          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

good,  rather  than  on  the  greatest  success  of  the 
institution. 

He  resigned  the  presidency  in  .1872,  but  he 
kept  up  his  teaching  to  the  very  end.  After  he 
passed  his  eightieth  birthday  the  students 
watched  apprehensively  lest  he  should  give  up 
teaching  before  they  reached  the  senior  year 
and  could  enter  his  classes.  It  would  have  been 
easy  to  say  that  teaching  was  too  great  a  tax  on 
his  strength,  that  he  needed  time  for  reading 
and  writing.  But  he  regarded  his  life  as  con- 
secrated to  the  college;  he  knew  that  personal 
influence  and  instruction  counted  more  for  good, 
if  not  for  fame,  than  any  books  he  might  write. 
He  might  have  been  recognized  in  England, 
Germany,  and  France  as  a  great  thinker  and  an 
illustrious  writer,  but  he  chose  to  be  remembered 
by  his  pupils;  and  the  many  graduates  of  the 
college  have  been  a  stronger  force  for  good  in 
the  world  for  having  known  Mark  Hopkins. 

He  lived  his  active  life  until  he  was  eighty- 
five  years  old,  and  then,  on  June  17,  1887,  with 
the  quiet  dawn  came  death. 

CONNECTION  WITH  MISSIONS. — Every  great 
man,  however  varied  his  labors,  stands  ulti- 
mately for  some  one  thing.  President  Barnard 
stood  for  applied  scholarship,  President  Finney 
for  devout  evangelistic  effort,  and  President 
Hopkins  for  missionary  force  and  wisdom. 


MARK    HOPKINS  199 

Modern  missionary  zeal  was  born  at  Williams 
College.  The  famous  American  Board  of  Com- 
missioners for  Foreign  Missions  was  the  result 
of  a  prayer  meeting  held  by  a  few  students  be- 
side a  haystack  at  Williams  College.  President 
Hopkins  was  the  grand  presiding  genius  of  that 
organization  from  1857,  when  he  was  chosen 
president,  to  the  time  of  his  death.  It  has  been 
given  to  no  other  man  to  serve  the  cause  of  mis- 
sions so  wisely  and  so  well  as  did  Mark  Hopkins. 

LECTURER  AND  AUTHOR. — The  circumstance 
that  started  Mark  Hopkins  as  a  lecturer  is  a 
significant  one.  For  his  classes  in  anatomy  and 
physiology  he  wanted  an  illustrating  physical 
manikin,  such  as  had  just  been  imported  from 
France  for  a  medical  college.  The  price  was 
several  hundred  dollars,  and  the  college  could 
not  afford  it.  His  salary  was  only  eleven  hun- 
dred dollars,  but  he  purchased  the  apparatus 
and  gave  his  note  for  six  hundred  dollars  in 
payment.  Then  he  set  out  through  the  neigh- 
boring towns  to  give  lectures,  with  the  manikin 
as  the  drawing  card,  in  hopes  it  would  help  pay 
for  itself.  The  lectures  were  successful  so  far 
as  interesting  the  audience  was  concerned  ;  but 
the  opportunities  were  few,,  and  the  pay  was 
small.  In  1842  the  board  of  trustees  paid  the 
balance  on  the  note,  but  did  not  offer  to  make 
up  what  he  had  paid  already. 


200    GREAT  AMERICAN  EDUCATORS 

Later  in  life  he  had  all  the  invitations  to  lec- 
ture that  he  desired,  and  he  was  well  paid  for 
whatever  he  did.  He  was  offered  many  honor- 
able and  lucrative  positions,  but  he  uniformly 
refused  to  leave  or  neglect  Williams  Col- 
lege. 

He  wrote  eighty-two  books,  pamphlets,  and 
articles  of  very  considerable  merit,  but  the  two 
which  were  most  widely  used  and  most  influen- 
tial were  the  "  Outline  Study  of  Man  "  and  "  The 
Law  of  Love  and  Love  as  a  Law."  These  are 
great  works,  which  reveal  the  vigor  of  his 
thought  and  the  force  of  his  character. 

FREDERICK    A.    P.    BARNARD 

COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY. —  Columbia  is  one  of 
the  largest  of  American  universities,  having 
more  than  three  hundred  professors  and  instruc- 
tors, more  than  two  thousand  students,  and  more 
than  seventeen  thousand  graduates.  Its  growth 
and  development  are  due  in  no  small  measure 
to  the  leadership  of  Dr.  Frederick  A.  P.  Bar- 
nard, its  tenth  president. 

Columbia,  had  as  interesting  a  beginning  as 
any  of  the  colleges.  When  first  started  in  New 
York  city,  in  1754,  it  was  styled  King's  College, 
and  it  retained  that  name  until  after  the  war  of 
the  Revolution.  In  1784  its  title  was  changed 


FREDERICK   A.  P.  BARNARD 


202    GREAT  AMERICAN  EDUCATORS 

to  Columbia  College  in  order  to  adapt  it  to  the 
new  order  of  things. 

Its  origin,  in  view  of  the. present  condemna- 
tion of  lotteries,  seems  peculiar.  In  1746  an 
act  was  passed  by  the  colonial  assembly  of  New 
York  which  provided  for  the  raising  of  money 
by  public  lotteries  "  for  the  encouraging  of  learn- 
ing and  towards  the  founding  of  a  college" 
within  the  colony.  The  sum  to  be  raised  was 
fixed  at  $11,250,  but  by  November,  1751,  the 
managers  of  the  enterprise  had  realized  through 
a  series  of  lotteries  $17,215.  The  Rev.  Dr. 
Samuel  Johnson,  one  of  the  first  tutors  at  Yale 
in  the  days  before  that  institution  had  a  name 
or  a  home,  was  secured  as  president  of  the  pro- 
posed college,  and  arrangements  were  made  for 
its  early  opening. 

Although  the  governors  of  the  college  did 
not  formally  take  their  oath  of  office  until  May, 
1755,  eight  students  had  presented  themselves 
in  July  of  the  previous  year,  and  these,  with 
two  other  students,  had  been  under  the  instruc- 
tion of  President  Johnson.  At  the  first  com- 
mencement of  King's  College,  held  June  21, 
1758,  five  students  received  the  degree  of  A.B. 
This  degree  was  also  conferred  on  three  men 
who  had  been  educated  elsewhere,  while  twelve 
men  received  the  degree  of  A.M. 

Of  the  five  original  members  of  the  first  class 


FREDERICK    A.  P.  BARNARD  203 

who  did  not  graduate  the  college  record  says  : 
"One  in  his  third  year  went  to  Philadelphia, 
one  about  the  middle  of  the  second  year  went 
into  the  army,  a  third  after  three  years  went  to 
merchandise,  a  fourth  after  two  years  went  to 
privateering,  and  a  fifth  after  three  years  went 
to  nothing."  These  appear  to  be  rather  inter- 
esting examples  of  the  outcome  of  college  edu- 
cation. 

During  the  troubled  period  which  followed 
the  outbreak  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  people 
had  little  time  or  thought  to  devote  to  colleges, 
and  for  eleven  years  King's  College  was  inac- 
tive. When  it  resumed  its  work  in  November, 
1787,  it  bore  the  name  of  Columbia.  Thirty- 
nine  students  were  enrolled,  and  ten  of  them  had 
rooms  in  the  college.  With  an  income  of  $6,650 
the  mangers  were  able  to  secure  the  services  of 
a  president,  three  professors,  and  a  medical 
faculty  of  three.  Five  years  later  the  legis- 
lature gave  the  college  about  $39,500,  and  pro- 
vided for  an  annual  appropriation  of  $3,750  for 
five  years.  With  this  liberal  aid  from  the  state 
the  college  was  well  established  and  started  on 
a  career  of  progress. 

BOYHOOD  OF  BARNARD. — Frederick  Barnard 
was  born  at  Sheffield,  Mass.,  May  5,  1809.  It 
was  the  year  in  which  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes, 
Edgar  Allan  Poe,  and  Abraham  Lincoln  were 


204    GREAT  AMERICAN  EDUCATORS 

born  in  America,  and  in  England  Charles  Dar- 
win, Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning,  Alfred  Tenny- 
son, and  William  E.  Gladstone.  It  was,  indeed, 
a  notable  year  for  the  birth  of  great  men  and 
women. 

The  village  of  Sheffield,  where  Barnard's  boy- 
hood was  passed,  is  in  a  beautiful  region  which 
in  those  days  was  almost  completely  isolated 
from  the  rest  of  the  world.  "Only  one  slight 
link,"  Dr.  Barnard  wrote,  "attached  us  to  outside 
humanity — the  mail-wagon,  called  for  euphony's 
sake  the  stage,  connecting  Albany  on  the  west 
with  Hartford  on  the  east,  which  passed  daily 
through  the  village.  In  my  later  boyhood,  when 
this  ramshackle  old  vehicle  was  replaced  by  a 
dashing  yellow-painted,  four-horse  post-coach,  a 
galvanic  thrill  seemed  to  run  through  the  whole 
sluggish  community,  and  it  was  felt  with  pride 
that  we  were  rising  in  the  world." 

Almost  as  soon  as  he  was  able  to  walk  young 
Frederick  was  sent  to  the  village  school  with  his 
sister.  That  first  morning  at  school  was  a  won- 
derful event  to  the  little  boy.  He  was  uncere- 
moniously set  down  among  the  younger  pupils, 
who,  "with  small  books  in  their  hands,  were 
rocking  themselves  to  and  fro  and  rapidly  mov- 
ing their  lips.  I  was  told  that  they  were  '  study- 
ing their  lessons,'  and  I  wondered  what  that 
could  be." 


FREDERICK    A.  P.  BARNARD  205 

He  says  further  :  "  I  could  read  before  I  went 
to  school.  How  it  happened  I  did  not  know.  I 
supposed  it  was  natural  to  do  so.  Probably  I 
had  acquired  that  accomplishment  from  the  same 
source  from  which  I  derived  almost  everything 
else  in  me  that  is  good — from  my  mother's  care- 
ful training.  I  read  and  spelled  as  the  others 
did  ;  it  was  a  very  wearying  and  meaningless 
business,  and  I  found  school  life  very  trying." 
The  one  thing  that  he  remembered  having 
learned  at  this  district  school  was  the  difference 
between  his  right  hand  and  his  left. 

Some  of  the  pleasantest  hours  of  his  boy- 
hood were  spent  at  the  workshop  of  a  friendly 
carpenter,  and  in  using  tools  at  home.  He  made 
kites,  sleds,  barrows,  windmills,  water-mills,  and 
trip-hammers  for  his  own  play  before  he  was  ten 
years  old.  He  also  made  the  desk  at  which  he 
studied  in  his  father's  office. 

A  little  later  he  became  acquainted  with  some 
printers,  and  was  soon  intensely  interested  in 
learning  to  set  type.  For  months  he  devoted 
to  this  occupation  all  his  hours  out  of  school ; 
and  by  the  time  he  was  twelve  years  old  he  had 
become  familiar  with  all  branches  of  the  art. 
Such  was  his  skill,  he  says,  that  if  at  any  time 
in  his  life  he  had  been  obliged  to  depend  upon 
the  labor  of  his  hands,  he  could  easily  have 
earned  a  living  as  a  practical  printer. 


206    GREAT  AMERICAN  EDUCATORS 

These  mechanical  occupations  of  his  boyhood 
aided  him  in  acquiring  habits  of  concentration 
and  persevering  industry,  and  afforded  valuable 
mental  discipline,  which  contributed  to  his  suc- 
cess all  through  life. 

EARLY  EDUCATION.  —  Dr.  Barnard  in  later 
life  had  no  very  pleasant  memories  of  his  early 
schools.  The  trouble  seems  to  have  been  chiefly 
with  the  methods  of  instruction  which  were  then 
in  vogue.  He  says  : 

"  If  by  education  is  meant  the  result  of  influ- 
ences exerted  by  other  minds  acting  on  and 
giving  shape  to  my  own,  I  should  find  it  difficult 
to  point  out  when,  where,  and  to  what  extent 
such  influences  have  produced  such  an  effect  on 
me.  Not  that  I  had  not  teachers  enough;  I  had 
probably  more  than  my  share ;  but  their  per- 
sonal relations  to  me,  as  I  recall  them,  seem  to 
have  consisted  chiefly  in  'setting'  me  lessons,  in 
listening  to  my  '  recitations,' — which  was  a  verbal 
repetition  of  the  text, — correcting  my  blunders 
by  giving  me  the  right  word  when  I  used  the 
wrong  one,  and  telling  me  I  'had  better  mind' 
when  I  was  restless  or  disorderly." 

His  first  lessons  in  geography,  at  four  years 
of  age,  were  interesting  because  the  teacher,  a 
graduate  of  Williams  College,  used  objects  for 
illustration.  This  was  an  unusual  thing  in  1813. 
This  teacher  had  a  globe  of  his  own  making,  a 


FREDERICK    A.  P.  BARNARD  207 

wooden  ball  eight  inches  in  diameter,  with  the 
equator,  tropics,  and  polar  circles  traced  on  it. 

Frederick  Barnard  began  to  study  Latin  at 
six,  and  he  was  made  to  learn  by  heart  the  whole 
grammar — rules  and  exceptions,  etymology,  syn- 
tax, and  prosody — word  for  word,  without  under- 
standing a  syllable  of  it.  Naturally  he  hated 
Latin,  but  when  he  read  Virgil  at  ten  years  of 
age,  he  began  to  enjoy  it.  He  read  a  transla- 
tion of  the  yEneid,  and  found  the  story  so  fasci- 
nating that  he  was  glad  to  read  it  in  the  original. 

An  important  feature  of  his  early  education 
was  his  miscellaneous  reading  at  home.  His 
father  put  Shakespeare's  comedies  into  his  hands 
when  he  was  only  six  years  old.  He  read  every- 
thing he  could  get ;  and  since  he  had  access  to 
the  writings  of  Cowper,  Burns,  Goldsmith,  Addi- 
son,  Burke,  and  Shakespeare,  his  reading  con- 
tributed largely  to  his  intellectual  development. 
Books  of  voyages  and  travel  were  his  special 

joy- 
When  nine  years  old  he  went  to  live  with 
his  grandfather  at  Saratoga  Springs,  where  he 
attended  the  academy  for  three  years.  Soon 
afterward  he  went  to  the  academy  at  Stock- 
bridge,  Mass.,  to  prepare  for  Yale.  There  he 
became  the  classmate  of  Mark  Hopkins,  and  the 
two  spent  many  a  happy  hour  together. 

AT  COLLEGE. — Young  Barnard  entered  Yale 


208    GREAT  AMERICAN  EDUCATORS 

College  at  fifteen.  Although  the  youngest 
member  of  a  strong  class,  he  took  high  rank 
from  the  first.  Mathematics  and  the  exact 
sciences  interested  him  most,  and  after  two 
years  he  was  recognized  as  the  leader  of  the 
whole  college  in  these  studies.  The  professors 
liked  him  for  his  diligence,  and  at  the  same  time 
he  was  popular  with  the  students. 

According  to  the  usages  at  Yale  in  those 
days  a  student  scarcely  came  into  mental  con- 
tact with  a  professor  before  his  senior  year. 
Every  class  at  entrance  was  broken  up  into 
divisions  of  about  forty  students  each,  and  the 
tutor  assigned  to  each  division  remained  its  sole 
instructor  in  all  branches  of  study  whatsoever 
to  the  end  of  the  junior  year.  The  practice  in 
entrance  examinations  was  similar.  Applicants 
for  admission  were  examined  orally,  in  squads 
of  about  ten,  and  one  officer  put  the  questions 
in  all  subjects.  Barnard,  fortunately,  had  for 
tutor  a  man  of  marked  ability. 

An  important  part  of  his  training  came  from 
the  college  literary  society,  of  which  he  was  an 
active  member.  They  had  enthusiastic  debates, 
which,  he  says,  for  interest  and  brilliancy  were 
equal  to  any  he  heard  later  in  assemblies  of 
much  superior  dignity.  Here  he  received  his 
best  practice  in  speaking  and  writing. 

In  September,  1828,  at  nineteen  years  of  age, 


FREDERICK   A.  P.  BARNARD  209 

he  received  his  A.B.  degree,  and  five  days  after 
the  commencement  he  began  teaching. 

TEACHING. — Frederick  Barnard's  first  posi- 
tion as  teacher  was  in  the  Hartford  Grammar 
School,  where  he  prepa-red  boys  for  Yale.  He 
was  sincerely  interested  in  his  pupils,  won  their 
good-will  by  joining  heartily  in  their  sports,  and 
impressed  them  with  a  sense  of  his  superiority 
as  a  teacher. 

Two  years  later  he  went  back  to  Yale  as  a 
tutor  for  the  freshman  class,  and  his  first  act 
was  to  change  the  old  custom  of  one  instructor 
for  all  subjects.  He  arranged  that  each  tutor 
should  teach  the  subject  in  which  he  excelled, 
so  that  the  class  had  the  advantage  of  expert 
instruction  in  several  studies. 

He  soon  resigned  his  tutorship  in  order  to 
teach  in  a  school  for  the  deaf  and  dumb  at 
Hartford,  and  later  in  a  similar  institution  at 
New  York.  From  this  work  he  went  to  the 
University  of  Alabama,  where  he  remained  as 
professor  for  sixteen  years.  These  were  happy, 
useful  years,  and  he  became  distinguished  as  an 
educator,  and  as  one  of  the  most  public-spirited 
men  of  the.  South. 

In  1854  he  became  connected  with  the  Uni- 
versity of  Mississippi,  where  he  remained  for 
seven  years,  part  of  the  time  as  president.  He 
was  always  outspoken  in  defense  of  the  Union, 


210    GREAT  AMERICAN  EDUCATORS 

and  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  he  re- 
signed his  position  and  with  difficulty  returned 
to  the  North. 

PRESIDENT  OF  COLUMBIA. — In  1864,  at  the  age 
of  fifty-five,  Dr.  Frederick  Barnard  was  elected 
president  of  Columbia  College,  and  in  that 
capacity  he  continued  to  labor  for  a  quarter  of 
a  century.  He  found  it  an  old-fashioned  col- 
lege, and  he  left  it  transformed  into  one  of  the 
greatest  of  modern  universities.  Under  his 
directing  hand  new  and  imposing  buildings  were 
erected,  and  the  college  was  fully  equipped  for 
scholarly  work  in  every  department.  He  gave 
to  the  institution  new  and  advanced  ideals, 
and  broadened  its  work  in  every  way.  He 
championed  the  elective  system  of  study,  and 
after  1880  gradually  extended  that  system  from 
class  to  class. 

He  steadily  urged  that  the  college  be  thrown 
open  freely  to  women,  and  his  efforts  resulted 
in  the  establishment  of  a  college  for  women, 
distinct  from  but  closely  connected  with  Colum- 
bia. He  did  not  live  to  see  its  opening,  but  in 
grateful  memory  of  him  and  his  work  it  is 
called  Barnard  College. 

In  addition  to  his  college  work,  Dr.  Barnard 
did  much  other  important  service.  He  was 
active  in  the  world  of  science.  He  was  president 
of  the  American  Metrological  Society  and  of 


CHARLES   G.  FINNEY  21 1 

two  other  scientific  bodies,  and  served  as  honor- 
ary corresponding  member  of  many  foreign 
associations.  He  was  commissioner  for  the 
United  States  at  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1867, 
and  again  at  that  of  1878.  He  was  editor-in- 
chief  of  "Johnson's  New  Encyclopedia,"  and 
wrote  a  number  of  important  books  and 
papers. 

His  life  of  usefulness  and  leadership  in  the 
cause  of  education  came  to  an  end  after  eighty 
years,  on  April  27,  i! 


CHARLES    G.  FINNEY 

THE  WESTERN  COLLEGES.  —  Though  New 
England  has  the  poetry  of  history  as  regards 
American  colleges,  the  West  has  a  more  marvel- 
ous college  record.  To  Harvard  belongs  the 
devotion  of  nearly  twenty-five  thousand  alumni 
and  the  loyalty  of  much  of  the  wealth  of  New 
England.  She  has  been  more  than  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  in  gathering  her  library 
and  equipping  her  departments  and  laboratories. 
Within  less  than  ten  years  the  University  of 
Chicago  has  sprung  into  existence,  and  now 
boasts  of  a  faculty  of  two  hundred  members, 
twenty-five  hundred  students,  a  library  of  three 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  volumes,  and  a 
plant,  endowment,  and  income  that  make  even 


212          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

Harvard  wonder  at  the  magnitude  of  this  fa- 
vored child  of  the  West. 

The  Western  colleges  have  grown  around 
two  ideals,  denominational  devotion  and  free 
state  tuition.  The  West  has  a  vast  array  of 
church  colleges,  and  nearly  every  state  in  that 
part  of  the  country  has  a  great  university,  built 
and  supported  by  public  taxation,  and  free  to  its 
young  people. 

Harvard,  Yale,  Princeton,  Columbia,  and 
other  great  Eastern  universities  hold  their 
leadership  without  church  enthusiasm,  public 
appropriation,  or  large  gifts.  They  have  re- 
ceived no  such  munificent  bequests  as  those  with 
which  Rockefeller  or  Leland  Stanford  have  en- 
dowed two  of  the  great  Western  institutions, 
nor  do  they  rest  on  state  pride,  as  is  the  case  of 
the  universities  of  Michigan,  Illinois,  Wisconsin, 
California,  and  other  Western  states. 

Of  the  four  hundred  and  seventy-two  col- 
leges and  universities  in  the  United  States,  only 
seventy-eight  are  in  the  New  England  and 
middle  states,  but  the  twelve  north  central  states 
contain  one  hundred  and  ninety-four.  One  sixth 
of  the  whole  number  are  in  the  New  England 
and  middle  group,  and  nearly  one  half  in  the 
north  central  division.  Two  hundred  and  eighty- 
one  of  the  colleges  are  denominational. 

OBERLIN   COLLEGE.  —  Oberlin  is  one  of  the 


CHARLES   G.  FINNEY 


214          GREAT  AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

best  examples  of  a  Western  religious  college. 
Though  not  classed  as  a  denominational  insti- 
tution, it  has  a  distinctively  religious  character, 
and  to  its  second  president,  Charles  G.  Finney, 
is  largely  due  its  well-deserved  prosperity  and 
the  intensity  of  its  influence. 

The  college  owes  its  beginning  to  the  reli- 
gious zeal  and  desire  for  economy  in  education  of 
two  home  missionaries.  The  funds  for  the  lands 
and  the  first  buildings  came  from  gifts  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars.  Each  donor  of  this 
sum  was  entitled  perpetually  to  the  privileges  of 
the  school  for  one  pupil  each  year. 

The  offer  which  made  the  opening  of  the  in- 
stitution possible  came  from  Philo  P.  Stuart,  in 
1833.  Mr.  Stuart  had  been  a  missionary  among 
the  Indians  in  Mississippi,  and  was  deeply  in- 
terested in  the  project  of  a  school  where  needy 
students  could,  by  their  own  exertions,  defray 
all  their  expenses.  He  and  his  wife  agreed  to 
take  charge  of  a  boarding-hall  for  four  years 
without  remuneration.  They  asked  only  seventy- 
five  cents  a  week  for  board  from  those  who 
would  forego  the  luxury  of  meat,  and  from 
those  who  wanted  meat  twice  a  day  they  re- 
quired only  a  dollar.  It  was  estimated  that  the 
entire  expense  of  a  student  on  vegetable  diet 
was  about  forty-eight  dollars  a  year.  Mr. 
Stuart's  frugality  and  plain  diet  did  not  long 


CHARLES    G.  FINNEY  215 

continue  popular,  but  his  devotion  to  the  col- 
lege is  commemorated  in  "Stuart  Hall,"  built 
in  1880,  where,  in  accordance  with  his  principles 
of  economy,  the  students  are  still  boarded  at 
very  low  prices. 

Oberlin  was  the  first  college  in  the  world  to 
admit  women  to  all  its  privileges  on  the  same 
terms  with  men.  The  first  class,  which  assem- 
bled December  3,  1833,  numbered  forty-four 
students,  twenty-nine  young  men  and  fifteen 
young  women.  Half  of  the  entire  number  were 
from  the  East. 

From  the  first  the  college  was  extremely 
radical  on  the  temperance  question.  But  the 
point  in  which  it  showed  its  pioneer  reform 
spirit  most  prominently  was  in  the  admission  of 
colored  students  to  its  classes.  In  the  very  year 
that  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society  was 
formed,  twenty-eight  years  before  the  emanci- 
pation proclamation,  Oberlin  College  received 
colored  students  into  the  classes  with  white  men 
and  women.  The  college  became  a  center  of 
the  anti-slavery  movement,  and  a  depot  of  the 
"underground  railroad."  Much  opposition  and 
hardship  were  suffered  on  account  of  these 
things,  but  the  institution  succeeded  in  weather- 
ing the  storms. 

The  radical  character  of  Oberlin  was  deter- 
mined in  1835,  when  it  was  hardly  two  years 


2l6          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

old.  In  the  theological  seminary  at  Cincinnati 
the  trustees  forbade  any  discussion  of  the  slavery 
question  by  professors  and  students.  This  ac- 
tion caused  a  crisis.  The  Rev.  Asa  Mahan,  the 
leading  minister  in  Cincinnati,  resigned  from 
the  board  of  trustees,  and  agreed  to  accept  a 
call  to  the  presidency  of  Oberlin,  provided  "stu- 
dents shall  be  received  irrespective  of  color." 

The  Oberlin  trustees  were  astonished  at  the 
receipt  of  this  proposition.  The  antislavery 
people  were  in  earnest,  however,  and  promised 
eight  new  professors  and  many  students  from 
the  theological  school  if  colored  students  should 
be  admitted  to  the  college.  Still  the  trustees 
hesitated.  Then  they  were  promised  that 
Charles  G.  Finney,  pastor  of  the  Broadway 
Tabernacle  Church  in  New  York  city,  would 
serve  as  a  professor  in  the  college,  and  they 
accordingly  yielded. 

Thus,  in  1835,  Oberlin  led  the  country  in  the 
advocacy  of  total  abstinence,  of  woman's  equal- 
ity with  man,  and  of  freedom  for  the  negro ; 
and  Charles  G.  Finney  then  began  his  great 
career  as  a  college  leader.  For  thirty-one  years 
he  was  at  Oberlin  as  professor  and  president. 

MR.  FINNEY'S  BOYHOOD. — Charles  G.  Finney 
was  born  at  Warren,  Conn.,  August  29,  1792. 
When  he  was  two  years  old  his  father  moved 
to  Oneida  County,  New  York,  which  was  then 


CHARLES    G.   FINNEY  2i; 

mostly  a  wilderness.  There  was  no  church  or 
Sunday  School,  and  scarcely  a  Bible  in  the  com- 
munity. Occasionally  some  wandering,  ignorant 
preacher  came  into  the  neighborhood,  but  his 
sermons  did  no  appreciable  good,  and  merely 
stirred  the  people  up  to  ridicule  his  crudeness. 

Young  Finney  attended  the  summer  and  win- 
ter district  school  until  he  was  seventeen.  Then 
he  taught  a  winter  school  for  three  years.  It 
had  been  his  intention  to  enter  Yale  College, 
but  a  prominent  teacher  whom  he  met  persuaded 
him  that  he  could  learn  more  in  the  same  time 
by  private  study.  As  a  result  he  did  not  go  to 
college,  and  instead  of  studying  privately,  he 
taught  in  New  Jersey  for  two  years. 

As  A  LAWYER. — At  the  age  of  twenty-six, 
Mr.  Finney  began  to  study  law  in  the  office  of 
a  prominent  attorney  in  New  York  state.  In  the 
course  of  his  studies  he  found  several  references 
to  the  Bible,  especially  to  the  laws  of  Moses. 
As  there  was  no  Bible  in  the  office,  he  bought 
one,  the  first  he  had  ever  owned,  and  the  first 
he  had  ever  read. 

For  a  while  he  only  opened  it  when  some 
reference  to  it  occurred  in  his  law  books,  but 
he  soon  found  himself  reading  more  than  the 
designated  verses.  Then  he  became  greatly 
interested,  and  before  he  fully  realized  whither 
he  was  drifting,  he  joined  the  church.  At  once 


2l8  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

he  determined  to  preach.  Few  persons  knew 
of  his  sudden  purpose.  The  first  intimation  of 
it  came  when  a  deacon  of  the  church  stepped 
into  his  office  and  said : 

'  You  recollect  that  my  case  is  to  be  tried 
at  ten  o'clock  this  morning.  I  suppose  you  are 
ready?" 

"Deacon,"  said  Finney,  "I  have  a  retainer 
from  the  Lord  to  plead  His  cause,  and  I  cannot 
plead  yours.  You  must  get  some  one  else." 

The  deacon  dropped  his  eyes,  and  without 
'saying  a  word  walked  out.  He  went  directly 
to  the  other  party  to  the  suit,  and  settled  it  out 
of  court. 

As  A  PREACHER. — Mr.  Finney's  answer  to  the 
deacon  settled  his  purpose  at  once.  Leaving 
the  office,  he  dropped  into  a  shoemaker's  shop 
near  by,  where  a  young  fellow  was  arguing 
against  the  Bible.  With  earnest,  convincing 
words,  Mr.  Finney  quickly  demolished  the  un- 
believer's arguments.  Then  he  went  from  store 
to  store,  from  shop  to  shop,  and  even  from 
house  to  house,  simply  telling  people  how  happy 
he  was  in  the  prospect  of  preaching. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  a  great  religious 
revival.  Mr.  Finney  preached  in  several  com- 
munities, and  always  with  great  effect.  This 
good  work  spread  until  he  had  large  meetings 
in  Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  Boston.  Later 


CHARLES   G.  FINNEY  219 

in  life  he  went  to  England  twice,  and  his  revi- 
val work  in  London  was  unsurpassed. 

When  he  was  about  forty  years  of  age,  he 
established  the  Broadway  Tabernacle  Church  in 
New  York  city,  and  became  its  pastor.  His 
whole  being  was  absorbed  in  his  great  work, 
and  he  was  loath  to  leave  his  church  when  the 
call  came  in  1835  to  go  to  Oberlin  College  as 
professor  of  theology.  This  change,  however, 
did  not  end  his  preaching,  for  after  1837  he  was 
pastor  of  the  Congregational  church  in  the  vil- 
lage of  Oberlin. 

A  COLLEGE  LEADER. — For  fifteen  years  Mr. 
Finney  labored  at  Oberlin  as  a  professor  with 
intense  energy  and  zeal;  and  _in  1851  he  was 
elected  president.  The  college  was  in  great 
financial  straits,  and  had  been  nearly  ruined  by 
the  panic  of  1837.  It  survived  only  through  the 
devotion  of  its  antislavery  friends  and  the  pro- 
fessors, who  stood  by  the  college  even  when 
their  salaries  were  far  too  small  for  the  neces- 
saries of  life. 

Mr.  Finney  sold  everything  he  possessed 
that  was  salable,  and  even  then  was  in  great 
destitution.  Thanksgiving  Day  in  1837  was 
anything  but  a  time  of  rejoicing  from  a  tem- 
poral standpoint,  yet  he  went  to  church  that 
morning  with  his  usual  cheerfulness.  On  his 
return  he  found  that  the  mail  had  brought  a 


220    GREAT  AMERICAN  EDUCATORS 

check  for  two  hundred  dollars  from  a  well- 
wisher  in  Providence,  Rhode  Island.  This  per- 
son continued  to  send  him  six  hundred  dollars 
annually  for  several  years. 

To  Mr.  Finney,  as  we  have  said,  Oberlin 
College  is  largely  indebted  for  its  success,  repu- 
tation, and  influence.  He  went  there  before  it 
was  two  years  old,  and  stayed  with  it  in  interest 
and  force  for  forty  years.  But  for  his  coming, 
the  college  would  not  have  committed  itself  to 
the  antislavery  issue.  Few  men  could  have 
carried  a  college  through  such  stormy  trials  as 
those  which  assailed  Oberlin  from  183710  1866. 

No  institution  sixty  years  ago  could  take  its 
stand  in  favor  of  extreme  temperance  legisla- 
tion, of  the  equal  rights  of  woman,  and  of  active 
opposition  to  slavery  without  provoking  bitter 
hostility  and  widespread  opposition.  The  twenty 
years  before  the  crisis  of  1860,  as  well  as  the 
years  of  the  Civil  War,  were  long,  desperate, 
and  critical.  That  the  college  came  through 
them  safely  and  triumphantly  was  chiefly  due 
to  Charles  G.  Finney. 

Oberlin  has  now  an  enrollment  of  more  than 
thirteen  hundred  students,  and  it  stands,  as  it 
has  always  done,  for  as  high  scholarship,  char- 
acter, and  force  as  any  college  in  the  West. 
More  than  a  thousand  colored  students  have  at- 
tended the  college,  and  an  army  of  teachers  has 


CHARLES    G.  FINNEY  221 

been  sent  out  since  the  war  to  labor  in  the  South 
for  the  freedmen.  Oberlin's  missionaries  are 
scattered  throughout  the  world  carrying  on  the 
work  of  education  in  the  spirit  in  which  the 
college  was  founded. 

Mr.  Finney  worked  on  at  Oberlin  until 
August  1 6,  1875,  when  he  died  at  the  age  of 
eighty-three.  No  American  educator  was  ever 
more  respected,  and  few  have  had  so  great  an 
influence  for  good  upon  the  country  and  the 
world. 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

OF 

AMERICAN   EDUCATION 


A  TYPICAL  WESTERN  SCHOOLHOUSE — 1850 


A  WESTERN  HIGH- SCHOOL  BUILDING — 1900 

A  HALF-CENTURY  OF   PROGRESS 


AMERICAN   EDUCATION 

HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

The  American  public  school  is  one  of  the 
grandest  institutions  in  the  world.  Without  it, 
America  would  not  be  what  she  is,  and  could 
not  be  the  mighty  power  she  is  destined  to 
become.  The  school  system  as  it  is  to-day — so 
universal,  so  elastic,  so  enriched  as  to  be  the 
wonder  of  the  world — has  come  to  be  what  it  is 
within  seventy  years,  and  largely  within  thirty 
years. 

In  1830  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  and 
New  York  were  the  only  states  in  the  Union 
that  had  established  a  free-school  system.  In 
the  seventy  years  that  have  followed,  all  the 
original  states  and  all  the  new  states  that  have 
come  into  the  Union  have  organized  free-school 
systems,  until  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific, 
from  Canada  to  Mexico,  the  public  school  is  a 
mighty  force  in  American  life.  In  the  lives  of 
great  American  educators  we  have  seen  by  what 
efforts  this  growth  was  attained,  but  the  results 
accomplished  can  best  be  appreciated  by  trac- 

225 


226    GREAT  AMERICAN  EDUCATORS 

ing  back  our  educational  system  to  its  be- 
ginnings. 

The  common  schools  of  the  United  States 
are  now  educating  more  than  15,000,000  pupils. 
The  common  schools  include  both  the  high 
schools  and  all  lower  grades  that  are  free  and 
public.  These  15,000,000  young  people  are 
more  than  20  per  cent  of  the  entire  population. 
The  schools  give  on  the  average  more  than 
seven  months'  schooling  each  year,  and  more 
than  400,000  teachers  are  employed  in  them. 

The  property  of  the  common  schools  is  valued 
at  nearly  $500,000,000.  More  than  $i  20,000,000 
is  paid  each  year  in  the  United  States  for  salaries 
of  teachers  and  superintendents  of  the  common 
schools. 

Spain  has  a  population  but  little  greater  than 
the  number  of  children  in  our  common  schools. 
The  entire  population  of  European  Turkey  is 
equal  to  half  the  number  of  school  children  in 
the  United  States.  These  children  outnumber 
the  entire  population  of  Mexico  and  of  Portugal; 
they  are  three  times  as  many  as  the  population 
of  Sweden,  and  seven  times  that  of  Denmark  or 
of  Norway. 

The  pupils  in  our  common  schools  would 
make,  according  to  the  census  of  1890,  ten  cities 
as  large  as  New  York,  fifteen  as  large  as  Chicago 
or  Philadelphia,  or  thirty  as  large  as  Boston. 


AMERICAN    EDUCATION  227 

They  would  make  three  cities  with  the  popula- 
tion of  London.  The  common  school  teachers 
alone  would  make  a  city  as  large  as  Boston  was 
at  that  census. 

1870-1900 

The  schools  of  to-day  are  vastly  better  than 
they  were  thirty  years  ago,  or  than  they  ever 
were  before  that  time.  The  people  who  talk 
about  how  much  better  the  schools  used  to  be 
have  forgotten  a  great  deal,  and  imagine  more 
about  the  common  schools  of  thirty  years  ago 
than  they  know  about  the  schools  of  to-day. 
Any  one  who  has  watched  children  in  school 
during  the  last  twenty  years  or  more  can  see 
that  the  child  to-day  has  learned  more  in  school 
and  has  learned  it  better  than  a  child  of  the  same 
age  learned  ten  years  ago.  This  has  been  true 
all  through  this  period.  There  has  been  a 
steady  improvement  in  the  variety  of  subjects 
studied,  in  the  interest  of  the  child  in  his  school 
work,  in  the  omission  of  non-essentials,  and  in 
the  power  developed  through  the  teaching. 

Since  1870  the  elementary  school  courses 
have  been  greatly  enriched.  Manual  training, 
in  the  form  of  sloyd  for  boys  and  cooking  and 
sewing  for  girls,  has  been  introduced.  Kinder- 
gartens have  come  to  be  generally  adopted. 
Education  has  been  made  compulsory  in  many 


228          GREAT   AMERICAN   EDUCATORS 

states.  Text-books  are  furnished  free  in  Maine, 
NewHampshire,Vermont,  Massachusetts,  Rhode 
Island,  New  Jersey,  Delaware,  Pennsylvania, 
Maryland,  and  Idaho.  Evening  schools,  vaca- 
tion schools,  and  free  lectures  have  been 
provided. 

Adjustable  school  furniture  has  been  invented 
and  put  in  use,  scientific  ways  of  heating  and 
ventilating  schoolhouses  have  been  discovered, 
and  school  sanitation  has  become  a  science. 

Since  1870  small  rural  schools  have  begun  to 
be  abolished,  and  children  in  out-of-the-way 
parts  of  the  town  are  now  transported  to  a  first- 
class  central  school. 

Elective  courses  have  been  introduced  into 
all  the  leading  universities  in  the  last  thirty 
years.  Women  have  been  admitted  to  all  the 
prominent  colleges  and  universities.  Profes- 
sional training  has  for  the  first  time  been  pro- 
vided for  teachers  above  the  elementary  grades. 
Teachers'  colleges  have  been  established,  and 
the  leading  universities  have  departments  of 
education. 

More  than  twenty  of  these  elements  of  edu- 
cational progress  will  for  all  time  be  attributed 
to  this  last  third  of  the  nineteenth  century. 


AMERICAN   EDUCATION  22Q 

1840-1870 

The  previous  thirty  years  were  much  more 
productive  of  progressive  educational  ideas  than 
any  other  period  of  equal  length.  From  1840 
to  1870  school  supervision  was  introduced  and 
became  almost  universal  in  cities.  It  was  the 
time  of  great  advancement  in  making  text- 
books, and  in  this  regard  it  was  an  epoch- 
making  period.  It  was  the  time  of  introducing 
music,  drawing,  and  physical  culture  in  the  com- 
mon schools.  Schoolhouse  architecture  was 
improved  and  single  desks  were  introduced. 
Women's  colleges  came  in  that  period,  and 
state  universities  got  their  great  start.  Techni- 
cal institutions  grew  up  in  those  years.  The 
National  Educational  Association  and  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Education  were  organized. 
The  South  began  its  career  of  free  public 
schools  for  all  children  without  regard  to  color. 

Before  1840  there  was  not  a  normal  school 
in  America,  nor  was  there  a  state  department 
of  education  except  in  Massachusetts,  and  that 
one  was  only  three  years  old.  In  1870  there 
were  normal  schools  in  all  the  Northern  states, 
and  every  state  in  the  Union  had  its  department 
of  education. 

The  reforms,  though  not  so  numerous  as  in  the 
thirty  years  that  followed,  were  many  of  them  of 


230          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

the  utmost  importance,  and  led  to  the  wonderful 
development  of  these  later  years.  The  great 
leaders  of  American  education,  Horace  Mann, 
Mary  Lyon,  David  P.  Page,  Henry  Barnard, 
Wickersham,  Philbrick,  Sheldon,  and  Bateman, 
all  did  their  important  work  in  this  period. 

1810-1840 

In  1810  there  was  no  general  provision  for 
the  education  of  girls.  At  the  close  of  this 
period  of  thirty  years,  girls  were  welcome  to 
the  summer  term  in  rural  schools,  to  city  pri- 
mary and  grammar  schools  all  the  year  round, 
and  there  were  private  schools  and  seminaries 
for  girls  in  New  York  and  New  England. 

Grammar  and  geography  were  now  recog- 
nized as  a  worthy  part  of  the  common-school 
course.  Geography  was  first  required  for  en- 
trance to  Harvard  College  in  1816,  and  was 
required  in  the  public  schools  of  Massachusetts 
in  1827.  The  teachers'  associations  and  insti- 
tutes are  due  to  the  leaders  of  this  period;  and 
the  first  state  department  of  education  was 
established  between  the  dates  above  given. 

1780-1810 

The  thirty  years  following  the  Revolutionary 
War  were  important  ones  for  education.  In  1 780 
Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire  were  the 


AMERICAN    EDUCATION  231 

only  states  with  free  common  schools.  Massa- 
chusetts was  almost  exhausted  by  the  effort  of 
more  than  a  hundred  years  to  enforce  her  famous 
law  of  1647,  which  required  every  town  to  have 
a  public  school.  In  1789  a  new  plan  was  formed, 
by  which  towns  were  allowed  to  divide  them- 
selves into  school  districts,  each  to  maintain 
a  school  of  its  own.  In  1800  these  districts 
were  given  power  to  raise  money  by  taxation 
for  buildings  and  for  the  support  of  schools. 
This  established  the  machinery  of  the  common- 
school  system  as  it  has  been  generally  known 
for  a  century. 

The  law  of  1789  required  every  town  of  fifty 
families  to  support  for  six  months  annually  a 
school  taught  by  a  master.  There  were  more 
than  thirty  ways  of  raising  money  for  these  dis- 
trict schools.  A  town  of  200  families  was  re- 
quired to  support  a  grammar-school  master,  who 
must  teach  reading,  writing,  the  English  lan- 
guage, spelling,  arithmetic,  and  decent  behavior. 
He  must  be  a  graduate  of  some  college  or  uni- 
versity, or  he  must  produce  a  certificate  of 
qualification  from  a  learned  minister  of  the 
town  or  neighborhood.  He  must  also  have  a 
certificate  from  the  select-men  of  the  town  stat- 
ing that  he  was  a  man  of  good  moral  character. 

Outside  of  New  England  there  was  no  school 
system  at  the  beginning  of  the  century.  New 


232          GREAT    AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

York  dates  the  successful  .inauguration  of  her 
school  system  from  1812.  As  early  as  1787 
Governor  George  Clinton  urged  upon  the  people 
the  necessity  of  educating  the  youth,  and  every 
year  the  governor  or  some  members  of  the  state 
assembly  championed  the  cause  of  education. 
A  movement  begun  in  1795  proved  unsuccessful, 
and  not  until  1812  did  educational  matters  receive 
the  .attention  necessary  for  establishing  free 
public  schools.  Since  then  a  magnificent  school 
system  has  been  developed. 

The  unsettled  territory  of  the  West  came 
into  the  possession  of  the  young  nation  during 
this  period,  and  the  first  orders  for  its  govern- 
ment contained  provisions  for  schools.  In  1785, 
on  May  2Oth,  Congress  reserved  for  school  pqr- 
poses  one  square  mile,  or  640  acres,  in  every 
township  of  thirty-six  square  miles  in  the  region 
northwest  of  the  Ohio.  The  famous  "ordinance 
of  1787,"  passed  by  Congress  on  July  13th  of 
that  year,  provided  that,  "  religion,  morality,  and 
knowledge  being  necessary  to  good  government 
and  the  happiness  of  mankind,  schools  and  the 
means  of  education  shall  forever  be  encouraged 
in  this  new  territory." 

It  is  remarkable  that  this  should  have  been 
voted  by  the  states  when  eleven  of  the  thirteen 
had  no  public-school  system.  If  this  provision 
had  not  been  made,  if  the  new  West  had  been 


AMERICAN   EDUCATION  233 

left  in  its  rapid  growth  to  struggle  with  the 
school  problem  as  the  East  had  done  in  its  slow 
growth,  the  Union  would  have  been  stunted  be- 
fore it  was  fairly  started. 

1750-1780 

During  this  period  of  thirty  years  the  typical 
New  England  academy  originated.  The  Revo- 
lutionary War,  with  all  that  led  up  to  it  from 
1763  to  1775,  and  the  lethargy  which  followed 
it,  were  not  conducive  to  educational  activity. 
Nevertheless  numerous  academies  were  organ- 
ized, and  these  served  a  most  important  educa- 
tional purpose  for  a  century  and  more. 

The  first  efforts  to  provide  academic  privi- 
leges for  American  youth,  outside  of  col- 
lege halls,  resulted  in  the  Dummer  Academy, 
established  in  1763  by  Governor  William  Dum- 
mer at  Byfield,  Massachusetts.  One  of  the 
first  pupils  in  this  academy  was  Samuel  Phillips 
of  Andover,  who  was  afterwards  instrumental 
in  establishing  Phillips  Andover  and  Phillips 
Exeter  academies.  Both  of  these  institutions 
date  from  1778,  and  are  still  in  existence.  The 
Leicester  Academy  was  established  in  1784, 
and  others  followed  at  various  places  in  New 
England.  At  one  time  there  were  eighty-eight 
incorporated  academies  in  Massachusetts. 

These  academies  were  an  important  factor 


234    GREAT  AMERICAN  EDUCATORS 

in  American  education.  In  them  most  of  the 
great  statesmen  were  educated,  and  they  gave  a 
higher  tone  to  general  education  than  had  pre- 
viously been  possible. 

1700-1750 

Prior  to  1750  education  received  but  a  slight 
amount  of  public  attention.  Massachusetts  and 
New  Hampshire  were  the  only  places  in  the 
world  having  free  public  schools. 

The  free-school  idea  in  Massachusetts  was 
fighting  for  its  life.  There  was  little  enthusiasm 
for  learning.  A  law  had  to  be  passed  putting  a 
fine  of  ;£io  on  every  town  that  failed  to  pro- 
vide a  schoolmaster.  This  fine  was  afterwards 
increased  to  £20,  because  "the  observance  of 
the  school  law  was  shamefully  neglected  by 
divers  towns."  Many  towns  tried  to  escape  the 
penalty  by  having  the  minister  teach  the  children 
with  little  or  no  extra  pay.  This  led  to  a  law 
declaring  that  no  minister  could  be  a  school- 
master within  the  intent  of  the  law.  Scarcely 
a  session  of  the  general  court  passed  at  this  time 
without  a  fine  being  imposed  on  some  town  for 
having  no  school.  One  town  put  in  the  plea  of 
poverty,  another  claimed  that  it  was  unable  to 
find  any  one  but  the  minister  who  could  teach. 
Some  towns  persistently  refused  to  have  a 
school,  and  paid  the  fine  each  year  because  this 


AMERICAN    EDUCATION  235 

was  cheaper.  The  law  increased  the  penalty 
every  few  years  in  the  effort  to  make  it  so  great 
that  the  towns  would  maintain  schools  rather 
than  pay  the  fines. 

Though  there  is  much  in  the  educational  his- 
tory of  these  fifty  years  that  Massachusetts  must 
regret,  it  is  a  cause  for  genuine  pride  that,  under 
the  circumstances,  she  made  the  fight  at  all.  It 
was  the  only  place  where  an  attempt  was  made  to 
force  communities  to  educate  children.  If  a  few 
towns  openly  rebelled,  the  towns  as  a  whole  not 
only  did  not  rebel,  but  punished  those  that 
refused  to  maintain  schools.  If  some  towns  at- 
tempted to  evade  the  law  by  allowing  the  min- 
ister to  teach,  the  towns  as  a  whole  fined  them 
for  it. 

With  all  its  weaknesses  this  half  century  re- 
veals more  heroic  devotion  to  the  educational 
idea  than  any  other  period  in  our  history.  There 
was  no  perceptible  advance  and  some  retrogres- 
sion, but  the  people  held  on.  They  were  strug- 
gling to  keep  from  sinking,  and  as  the  man  who 
clings  to  a  floating  spar  in  a  wreck  is  more  of  a 
hero  than  he  who  raises  the  sail  in  a  fair  breeze, 
so  Massachusetts  deserves  praise  and  honor  for 
her  conduct  in  the  hour  of  her  greatest  gloom. 

It  is  important  to  know  something  of  the  diffi- 
culties in  t;he  way  of  education  in  this  period. 
Before  1700  there  was  no  scattered  population 


236          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

in  Massachusetts.  The  law  prohibited  the  peo- 
ple from  living  at  any  great  distance  from  the 
town  center.  Dedham  had  a  law  specifying  that 
no  one  could  build  more  than  two  miles  from 
the  meeting-house,  and  other  towns  had  similar 
requirements.  This  concentration  of  the  popu- 
lation made  it  comparatively  easy  to  have  one 
school  for  the  town. 

But  the  people  now  thought  there  was  to  be 
no  more  danger  from  the  Indians,  and  all  over 
the  state  they  moved  from  the  villages  out  into 
the  country.  Between  1700  and  1760,  123  new 
towns  were  incorporated  in  Massachusetts,  and 
in  most  of  them  the  population  was  widely  scat- 
tered. As  a  rule  the  less  thrifty  families  left  the 
villages  for  the  farms.  The  mothers  were  not 
able  to  teach  their  children  even  to  read.  More 
than  sixty  per  cent  of  the  women  whose  names 
appear  in  the  documents  of  those  years  could 
not  sign  their  names,  but  were  content  to  make 
their  mark.  The  first  settlers  in  these  new  towns 
were  poor,  and  could  see  no  reason  why  their 
children  should  be  educated  in  a  school.  It  is 
small  wonder  that  they  fought  against  the  school 
law. 

The  best  that  could  be  done  in  a  town  that 
had  a  school  was  to  move  it  around.  In  Scituate 
in  1704  it  was  voted  that  the  school  be  kept  one 
third  of  the  time  at  each  end  of  the  town,  and 


AMERICAN    EDUCATION  237 

one  third  in  the  middle.  In  Sutton  in  1730  the 
school  was  moved  all  over  the  town,  staying  a 
month  in  each  place.  Few  of  the  new  towns  had 
schoolhouses,  and  the  schools  were  usually  kept 
in  private  houses. 

One  result  of  the  migratory  school  without  a 
schoolhouse  was  the  employment  of  teachers  of 
an  inferior  quality.  Thisbecame  so  noticeable  that 
the  general  court  forbade  that  any  man  who  was 
not  conspicuously  good  be  employed  as  teacher. 
He  must  be  formally  endorsed  by  the  minister 
of  the  town;  and  when  it  was  found  that  some 
ministers  indorsed  unworthy  men,  the  school- 
master was  required  to  have  the  endorsement 
of  the  ministers  of  adjoining  towns  as  well. 

It  was  soon  evident  that  good  men  who  had 
taught  in  village  schoolhouses  would  not  go  into 
the  country  and  teach  from  place  to  place  in  the 
homes.  Consequently  women  were  employed 
as  teachers. 

The  old  town  records  contain  many  items 
regarding  schooldames.  In  1694  Woburn  paid 
Widow  Walker  ten  shillings  for  schooling  small 
children.  The  town  of  Mendon  voted  in  1732 
to  choose  schooldames  to  teach  in  the  outskirts 
of  the  town.  Westford  in  1764  hired  a  school- 
dame  to  keep  school  six  months  in  six  parts  of 
the  town.  In  1721  the  wife  of  the  smith  was 
the  only  teacher  of  young  children.  She  taught 


238    GREAT  AMERICAN  EDUCATORS 

twenty-two  weeks  in  the  warm  season  at  four- 
pence  a  week.  At  the  same  time  she  was  making 
shirts  for  the  Indians  at  eightpence  apiece  and 
breeches  at  a  shilling  and  sixpence  a  pair,  and 
caring  for  her  own  children.  Teaching  was  not 
so  profitable  as  making  shirts  and  breeches.  It 
certainly  was  not  regarded  as  an  important  and 
dignified  calling  in  those  days. 

1619-1700 

The  English  of  Virginia,  the  Dutch  of  New 
York,  the  Swedes  of  Delaware,  and  the  Quakers 
of  Pennsylvania,  all  came  to  America  with  great 
educational  ideas  and  .ideals.  There  are  few 
more  beautiful  utterances  upon  the  need  of 
schools,  or  more  praiseworthy  acts,  than  those 
of  the  promoters  of  these  settlements.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Pilgrims  came  to  Plymouth  and 
the  Puritans  to  Boston  apparently  with  no  edu- 
cational sentiment. 

THE  MIDDLE  COLONIES 

In  1619,  a  year  before  the  Pilgrims  landed, 
and  eleven  years  before  the  Puritans  came  to 
Boston,  the  Virginia  Company  made  a  grant  of 
ten  thousand  acres  of  land  for  a  university  in 
its  colony,  and  that  same  year  the  bishops  of 
England  raised  $7,500  to  found  a  school;  but 
nothing  came  of  these  efforts.  In  1688  interest 


AMERICAN    EDUCATION  239 

in  education  revived,  and  $i  2,500  was  subscribed 
by  wealthy  men  in  the  colony  and  by  friends  in 
England.  The  queen  added  $10,000,  twenty 
thousand  acres  of  land,  and  a  tax  of  a  cent  a 
pound  on  all  tobacco  exported  from  Maryland 
and  Virginia.  All  this  educational  zeal  ultimately 
resulted  in  the  College  of  William  and  Mary, 
which  was  chartered  in  1692.  But  Virginia  had 
no  free-school  system  until  after  the  Civil  War. 

The  authorities  in  Holland  in  granting  a 
charter  to  the  Dutch  West  India  Company 
for  the  settlement  of  New  Amsterdam — New 
York — required  that  the  company  should  main- 
tain "good  and  fit  preachers,  schoolmasters,  and 
comforters  of  the  sick."  In  1629  the  company 
laid  the  responsibility  of  providing  ministers  and 
schoolmasters  upon  the  colonists.  Four  years 
later  the  new  governor,  William  Kieft,  brought 
with  him  from  Holland  the  first  American  school- 
master, Adam  Roelandsen.  He  was  appointed 
teacher  by  the  authorities  in  Holland,  and  his 
salary  was  paid  by  the  Dutch  West  India  Com- 
pany. His  school  was  under  the  supervision  and 
management  of  the  deacons  of  the  Dutch  Re- 
formed Church,  and  such  a  school  has  been 
connected  with  that  church  ever  since  Roeland- 
sen opened  it  in  1633. 

In  1649  there  was  no  school  in  New  York  in 
which  a  lad  could  study  Latin  or  fit  himself  for 


240          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

college;  and  a  formal  complaint  was  made  that 
no  schoolhouse  had  ever  been  built,  and  that 
"  the  school  was  kept  very  irregularly,  by  this  one 
and  that,  according  to  his  fancy,  as  he  sees  fit." 

Good  as  were  the  intentions  of  Holland  in 
providing  schools  for  the  colony,  the  results 
were  very  slight.  As  late  as  1 749,  when  it  was 
more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  old, 
that  great  colony  had  only  two  schools  out- 
side the  city  of  New  York  and  its  immediate 
vicinity.  A  school  was  established  at  Albany  in 
1665,  and  a  second  one  at  Schenectady  in  1710. 
Not  until  1812  was  the  free-school  system  of 
New  York  founded. 

Gustavus  Adolphus,  king  of  Sweden,  planned 
for  an  American  colony  in  1626,  four  years  before 
the  Puritans  came  to  Boston.  He  promised,  as 
an  inducement  to  his  people  to  go  to  America, 
that  "schools  and  churches  will  flourish  through 
the  colony  and  be  sustained,  and,  furthermore, 
those  who  have  learned  something  will  be  pro- 
moted to  dignities  and  positions."  Where  else 
has  there  been  so  explicit  a  statement  of  the 
reward  that  shall  come  directly  from  learning? 

The  settlement  on  the  Delaware,  which  was 
made  some  years  later,  was  under  high  educa- 
tional inspiration;  but  the  colony  really  did  little 
for  education,  and  it  was  nearly  two  hundred  years 
before  the  people  of  that  section  established  free 
schools. 


AMERICAN   EDUCATION  241 

William  Penn  had  formed  great  plans  for  the 
education  of  the  children  of  his  colony.  In  his 
frame  of  government  he  provided  that  "the  gov- 
ernor and  provincial  council  shall  erect  and  order 
all  public  schools,  and  encourage  and  reward 
the  authors  of  useful  sciences  and  laudable  in- 
ventions." The  twenty-eighth  law  for  the  guid- 
ance of  the  colony  was  as  follows:  "That  all 
children  of  the  age  of  12  years  shall  be  taught 
some  useful  trade  or  skill,  to  the  end  none  may 
be  idle,  but  the  poor  may  work  to  live,  and  the 
rich,  if  they  become  poor,  may  not  want." 

Before  the  colony  was  founded  Penn  wrote: 
'  The  world  is  certainly  a  great  and  stately  vol- 
ume of  natural  things.  *  *  This  ought 
to  be  the  subject  of  the  education  of  our 
youth." 

The  colony  of  Pennsylvania  was  chartered 
in  1 68 r,  but  despite  Penn's  excellent  ideas  re- 
garding universal  free  education,  there  was  no 
free-school  system  until  1834-5. 

THE  NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIES 

The  Pilgrims,  soon  after  they  came  to  Ply- 
mouth in  1620,  voted  that  some  course  should 
be  taken  "that  in  every  town  there  may  be  a 
schoolmaster  set  up  to  train  the  children  in 
reading  and  writing."  Nothing  definite  was 
done  about  the  matter,  though  it  is  quite  prob- 


242  GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

able  that  some  sort  of  school  privileges  were 
provided.  The  first  record  on  the  subject  is  in 
1670,  when  the  Plymouth  colonial  legislature 
voted  to  appropriate  the  profits  of  the  Cape  Cod 
fisheries  for  school  purposes.  A  grammar  school 
was  at  once  established  at  Plymouth.  In  1677 
the  old  colony  of  Plymouth  passed  a  law  much 
like  the  famous  one  passed  by  the  Massachusetts 
Bay  Colony  in  1647.  After  that,  education  in 
the  two  colonies  developed  along  the  same  lines, 
and  can  best  be  traced  in  the  Massachusetts  Bay 
history. 

The  Dutch  from  New  York  and  the  English 
from  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts  Bay  began 
settling  in  the  rich  lands  of  Connecticut  in  1633. 
In  1638  a  company  from  Massachusetts  founded 
New  Haven,  and  they  must  have  established  a 
school  almost  at  once,  for  the  next  year  the 
court  decreed  that  "Thomas  Fugill  is  required 
to  keep  Charles  Higginson,  an  apprentice,  at 
school  one  year." 

On  Christmas  Day  in  1641,  it  was  voted  that 
"  a  free  school  be  set  up  in  this  town,  and  our 
pastor,  Rev.  John  Davenport,  together  with  the 
magistrates,  shall  consider  what  yearly  allowance 
is  meet  to  be  given  to  it  out  of  the  common 
stock  of  the  town,  and  also  what  rules  and 
orders  are  meet  to  be  observed."  This  school 
had  as  its  first  teacher  Ezekiel  Cheever,  Amer- 


AMERICAN    EDUCATION  243 

ica's  first  great  schoolmaster  and  one  of  the 
grandest  the  country  has  ever  known.  He  was 
paid  $100  a  year  for  two  years,  and  in  1644  the 
salary  was  raised  to  $150.  This  increase  was 
made  "  for  the  better  training  up  of  the  youth 
of  this  town,  that  through  God's  blessing  they 
may  be  fitted  for  public  service  hereafter,  either 
in  church  or  commonwealth." 

Ezekiel  Cheever  was  born  in  London,  and 
came  to  Boston  in  1637,  when  he  was  23  years 
old.  He  taught  in  New  Haven,  Ipswich,  and 
Charlestown  for  more  than  thirty  years;  and  in 
1670,  at  56  years  of  age,  he  took  charge  of  the 
Boston  Latin  School.  He  taught  there  for 
thirty-eight  years  until  he  died  at  his  post  at 
the  age  of  94.  He  wrote  the  first  text-book 
published  in  America,  a  book  on  the  teaching  of 
Latin  grammar. 

The  governor  and  all  the  dignitaries  of  the 
city  and  the  colony  gathered  to  honor  and  mourn 
him  at  the  funeral  which  was  held  in  the  school- 
house.  Cotton  Mather  delivered  the  sermon, 
and  in  speaking  of  his  great  service  said:  "  Ink 
is  too  vile  a  liquor,  liquid  gold  should  fill  this 
pen  by  which  such  things  are  told." 

Neither  Europe  nor  America  has  produced 
a  better  schoolmaster  than  Ezekiel  Cheever. 
He  deserves  a  place  with  Roger  Ascham.  He 
may  not  have  been  an  "  educator,"  but  he  was 


244          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

a  wonderfully  able  schoolmaster  and  New  Haven 
and  Boston  owe  much  to  him. 

In  1650  the  Connecticut  legislature  passed  a 
compulsory  education  law,  not  requiring  that 
children  should  be  sent  to  school  but  that  they 
should  know  how  to  read  and  write.  The 
penalty  was  twenty  shillings  a  year  for  neglect 
to  educate  a  child.  It  was  also  voted  the  same 
year  that  every  town  of  fifty  families  should  sup- 
port a  teacher  of  reading  and  writing,  and  every 
town  of  one  hundred  families  a  Latin  school. 
Any  town  that  failed  to  comply  with  this  order 
must  pay  a  penalty  of  twenty-five  dollars  a  year 
to  the  nearest  school. 

The  schools  at  first  were  supported  wholly  by 
tuition  fees,  but  in  1656  New  Haven  voted  that 
a  third  of  the  cost  should  be  paid  by  the  town. 
Public  lands  were  set  aside  to  aid  the  schools 
in  1737;  and  in  1793  Connecticut  provided  the 
first  state  school  fund  in  the  world.  This  soon 
amounted  to  $1,200,000.  This  money  did  not 
help  to  establish  free  schools,  as  it  was  very 
generally  given  -to  the  church  schools.  The 
sentiment  for  education  was  strong,  but  the  idea 
of  making  it  free  was  not  popular  in  Connecticut 
until  the  nineteenth  century. 

Roger  Williams  went  to  Rhode  Island  in  1636 
with  the  most  exalted  ideas  as  to  intelligence, 
education,  virtue,  and  freedom.  In  1640  Rhode 


AMERICAN    EDUCATION  245 

Island  made  a  beginning  in  public  education 
when  Newport  voted,  on  August  20,  "that  one 
hundred  acres  of  land  should  be  laid  forth  and 
appropriated  for  a  school,  for  encouragement 
of  the  poorer  sort  to  train  up  their  youth  in 
learning."  Newport  continued  to  have  a  public 
school  until  1774,  but  there  was  none  from  that 
time  until  about  1820. 

In  Providence,  in  May,  1663,  one  hundred 
acres  of  upland  and -six  acres  of  meadow  land 
were  set  apart  for  the  maintenance  of  a  school. 
Over  a  hundred  years  later,  in  1767,  the  town 
made  an  effort  to  establish  public  schools,  but 
the  movement  to  build  four  schoolhouses  was 
voted  down.  One  schoolhouse,  however,  was 
built  by  the  town  and  by  private  enterprise — the 
town  to  use  the  lower  story  for  a  school,  and  the 
other  owners  to  have  control  of  the  rest  of  the 
building.  In  1785  the  town  voted  to  keep  a  hall 
in  repair  for  school  purposes  at  public  expense. 
In  1 795  it  was  voted  to  establish  a  free  school, 
but  the  law  was  not  carried  into  effect  until  1800, 
and  the  free-school  system  did  not  come  until 
1828. 

All  this  shows  how  difficult  it  was  to  get  the 
colonies,  and  later  the  states,  outside  of  Massa- 
chusetts, to  support  anything  like  a  free  school. 
The  Virginians,  the  Dutch,  the  Swedes,  the 
Quakers,  the  Pilgrims,  the  people  of  Connecti- 


246    GREAT  AMERICAN  EDUCATORS 

cut,  and  Roger  Williams,  all  had  excellent  edu- 
cational ideals,  but  no  one  of  them  established  a 
school  system  or  maintained  free  schools  prior 
to  the  nineteenth  century.  This  helps  us  to 
appreciate  how  great  must  have  been  the  effort 
in  Massachusetts  to  maintain  public  schools  from 
1647  until  the  general  revival  of  learning  in  the 
days  of  Horace  Mann. 

MASSACHUSETTS 

It  was  left  for  the  Puritan,  the  stern,  rigid, 
unrelenting,  unattractive  Puritan,  to  establish 
the  first  free  elementary  schools,  the  first  free 
Latin  schools,  and  the  first  university.  It  was 
for  the  Puritan  to  insist  on  having  public  schools, 
and  to  require  all  the  people  to  educate  all  their 
children.  It  was  for  the  Puritan  to  enforce  this 
law  by  exacting  penalties  through  all  the  years 
of  war  and  peace,  through  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  commonwealth. 

The  story  of  the  struggle  to  establish  and 
maintain  free  schools  is  an  interesting  one.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  the  Puritan  came 
with  no  flourish  of  educational  trumpets.  There 
are  behind  him  no  such  beautiful  sentiments  as 
those  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  William  Penn,  and 
the  promoters  of  the  other  colonies.  The  Puri- 
tan school  is  a  matter  of  deeds,  not  of  words. 

The    first    New    England    schoolmaster  was 


AMERICAN    EDUCATION  247 

Philemon  Pormort.  The  records  of  Boston 
show  that  in  1635  it  was  "agreed  upon  that  our 
brother  Philemon  Pormort  shall  be  entreated 
to  become  schoolmaster  for  the  teaching  and 
nurturing  of  children  with  us."  The  first  year 
he  was  paid  by  subscriptions  and  by  the  use  of 
an  island  in  Muddy  river.  The  next  year,  1636, 
all  the  principal  inhabitants  of  the  town  sub- 
scribed from  four  shillings  to  ten  pounds  each 
"  towards  the  maintenance  of  a  free-school  mas- 
ter, for  Mr.  Daniel  Maude  being  now  also  chosen 
thereunto."  The  list  of  these  subscribers  is  still 
preserved. 

In  1650  the  schoolmaster  was  Mr.  Robert 
Woodmansey,  who  received  a  salary  of  ^50  a 
year,  which  was  raised  by  taxation.  In  1666  Mr. 
Daniel  Henchman  was  chosen  to  assist  him  for 
£40  a  year.  After  Mr.  Woodmansey's  death 
the  town  voted,  in  March,  1670,  that  Widdowe 
Margaret  Woodmansey  should  have  ^8  a  year 
with  which  to  provide  herself  a  house  during  her 
"  widdowhood."  This  first  school,  taught  by 
Mr.  Pormort  and  then  by  Mr.  Woodmansey,  still 
exists  as  the  Boston  Latin  School,  and  was  for 
more  than  fifty  years  the  only  school  in  Boston. 

The  colony  voted  on  September  8,  1636,  to 
give  ^400  ($2,000)  toward  a  school  or  college, 
the  location  of  which  was  to  be  determined  by 
the  next  session  of  the  general  court.  New- 


248    GREAT  AMERICAN  EDUCATORS 

town  was  the  place  chosen.  In  1638,  before  the 
college  was  established,  Rev.  John  Harvard  of 
Charlestown,  in  dying,  bequeathed  his  library  and 
half  his  property  to  the  infant  institution.  The 
bequest  amounted  to  ^779  175.  2d.,  and  with 
this  help  the  college  was  at  once  established.  It 
received  the  name  of  Harvard  College,  and  the 
name  of  the  town  was  changed  to  Cambridge  in 
honor  of  the  English  university  town.  This  was 
for  many  years  the  only  college  in  America,  and 
it  has  grown  to  be  a  mighty  institution  whose 
scholarship  is  admired  throughout  the  world. 

The  ^400  voted  by  the  colony  for  the  college 
was  as  much  as  it  appropriated  that  year  for  all 
other  purposes,  and  this  Massachusetts  Assem- 
bly of  1636  was  the  first  body  in  which  the  peo- 
ple by  their  representatives  ever  gave  their  own 
money  to  found  an  institution  of  learning. 

In  1642  the  general  court  instructed  the 
selectmen  in  every  town  to  take  account  of  the 
education  and  employment  of  all  children.  The 
selectmen  were  authorized  to  divide  the  town  so 
that  each  of  them  should  have  oversight  of  a  cer- 
tain number  of  families,  to  see  that  the  children 
could  read,  understand  the  principles  of  religion 
and  the  laws  of  the  country,  and  be  put  to  some 
useful  work.  The  colony  was  only  twelve  years 
old  when  the  legislature  made  education  com- 
pulsory. It  did  not  then  require  that  the  chil- 


AMERICAN   EDUCATION  249 

dren  go  to  school,  but  that  they  be  taught 
reading,  good  morals,  good  citizenship,  and 
manual  training. 

This  law  was  enforced.  All  children  of  each 
town  were  examined  and  reported  upon.  The 
selectmen  appointed  a  day  and  notified  the  peo- 
ple that  they  would  "  go  the  rounds  to  examine 
the  teachings  of  children  and  youth  according 
to  law."  Sometimes  the  selectmen  appointed 
one  man  to  whom  all  the  children  should  come 
at  a  given  time  to  be  examined.  This  was  con- 
sidered a  great  educational  advance. 

Seven  grammar  schools,  or  schools  which 
prepared  for  college,  had  been  established  in 
Massachusetts  by  1647,  and  no  two  of  them 
were  supported  in  the  same  way.  The  school 
in  Boston  required  no  tuition  fees,  but  the 
master  was  paid  £$Q  a  year  from  moneys 
obtained  from  four  sources:  subscriptions,  in- 
come on  certain  town  lands,  income  from  the 
school  funds,  and  a  town  tax.  The  Dorchester 
school  had  neither  a  tax  nor  a  fee,  but  was  sup- 
ported by  the  income  from  leasing  an  island  and 
from  bequests.  The  Cambridge  school  was 
wholly  supported  by  tuition  fees.  The  Charles- 
town  school  had  the  rent  of  some  islands,  income 
from  fishing  privileges,  and  a  town  tax. 

In  Salem  the  town  paid  for  the  poor  children, 
but  the  school  for  the  most  part  was  supported 


250          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

by  subscriptions.  The  Ipswich  school  was  partly 
a  tuition  school.  The  Roxbury  school  was 
exclusive,  and  was  never  made  public.  Dedham 
had  a  school  in  1644  wholly  free  and  supported 
by  taxation.  The  tax  was  to  be  paid  in  wheat 
and  corn,  at  least  two  thirds  to  be  wheat. 

In  general,  there  was  no  apparent  objection 
to  a  tax,  but  no  disposition  to  resort  to  it  until 
it  became  necessary;  and,  for  the  most  part,  the 
schools  were  free  to  the  pupils. 

In  1647  the  general  court  passed  the  most 
famous  school  law  ever  made.  Every  township 
in  the  colony  with  fifty  households  was  required 
to  appoint  some  one  within  the  town  to  teach 
reading  and  writing  to  all  such  children  as  should 
resort  to  him.  This  man  was  to  be  paid  by  the 
parents  and  guardians,  or  by  the  inhabitants 
in  general,  or  in  such  other  way  as  "the  major 
part  of  those  that  order  the  prudentials  of  the 
town  shall  appoint."  Those  who  sent  children 
to  school  were  not  to  be  oppressed  by  having  to 
pay  "much  more"  than  their  tuition  would  have 
cost  in  other  towns. 

It  was  further  required  that  when  a  town  had 
one  hundred  families  it  should  set  up  a  grammar 
school,  with  a  master  who  could  instruct  the 
youth  "  so  far  as  they  may  be  fitted  for  the  uni- 
versity." If  any  town  neglected  this  provision 


AMERICAN    EDUCATION  251 

it  was  to  pay  a  fine  to  the  next  school  until  it 
established  a  school  of  its  own. 

The  colony  was  only  seventeen  years  old. 
There  were  only  twenty  thousand  people,  scat- 
tered through  thirty  towns,  and  all  were  strug- 
gling with  the  conditions  of  life  in  a  new  world. 
Yet  they  had  provided  a  complete  system  of 
education.  Parents  must  educate  their  children. 
The  towns  must  provide  schools  for  all  children 
at  slight  expense,  and  they  might  tax  the  citi- 
zens in  order  to  furnish  free  schools.  The  town 
officers  must  see  that  the  children  were  edu- 
cated according  to  law,  and  a  penalty  must  be 
paid  for  failure  in  any  respect.  Further,  towns 
of  one  hundred  families  must  provide  prepara- 
tory schools  to  fit  boys  for  the  college,  which 
had  already  been  established  nine  years  by  pub- 
lic appropriation. 

Such  was  the  foundation,  firm  and  true,  on 
which  the  school  system  has  been  built  by  per- 
sistent determination  and  devotion.  Through 
all  the  hard  years  that  followed,  Massachusetts 
remained  faithful  to  the  idea  of  free  schools  for 
all  the  people. 

The  American  free  common  school  is  the 
result  of  three  special  factors:  the  ideals  for 
the  education  of  those  who  settled  in  Virginia, 


252          GREAT   AMERICAN    EDUCATORS 

Delaware,  New  York,  and  Pennsylvania ;  the 
grit  and  persistency  of  the  Puritans;  and  the 
blending  of  the  devotion  of  all  in  the  educa- 
tional provisions  for  the  territory  west  of  the 
Alleghanies.  When  the  thirteen  colonies  be- 
came an  independent  nation,  those  which  had 
inherited  the  educational  traditions  of  William 
Penn,  Gustavus  Adolphus,  and  the  Dutch  of 
Holland,  looked  to  New  England  to  set  the 
standard  for  national  education,  and  this  meant, 
ultimately,  free  common  schools  throughout  the 
United  States. 

Leaders  were  needed.  Leaders  alofae  could 
put  the  breath  of  life  into  the  great  educa- 
tional idea  that  had  been  associated  with 
everything  American  for  two  centuries.  These 
leaders  appeared  in  Horace  Mann,  Mary  Lyon, 
Henry  Barnard,  David  P.  Page,  John  D.  Phil- 
brick,  Newton  Bateman,  Edward  A.  Sheldon, 
James  P.  Wickersham,  and  other  men  and 
women  to  whose  wisdom  and  devotion  are 
largely  due  the  grandeur  and  efficiency  of  the 
present  American  schools. 


"  TRAINING  FOR  CITIZENSHIP  " 

THE 
"FOUR  GREAT  AMERICANS" 

SERIES 

BIOGRAPHICAL  STORIES  OF  GREAT  AMERICANS 


EDITED    BY 


JAMES  BALDWIN,  PH.D. 


About  256  pages  each.      Cloth.      Illustrated 
Price  50  Cents  the  Volume 

THESE  Stories  present  the  lives  of  our  Great  Americans  in 
such  a  manner  as   to  hold  the  attention  of  the  youngest 
readers.      The  boyhood  of  each    of  these    great  men   is 
described   with   many  interesting   details.      The   manner   also   in 
which  each  educated  himself  and  prepared  for  his  life  work  has 
been  especially  dwelt  upon.      For  the  school  or  for  the  home, 
these  books  are  unique  and  valuable,  and  cannot  fail  to  have  an 
uplifting  influence  on  the  youth  of  America. 

As  no  books  have  done  before,  these  Life  Stories  serve  the 
following  purposes:  They  lay  the  foundation  for  the  study  of 
BIOGRAPHY  and  HISTORY;  they  stimulate  a  desire  for  further  HIS- 
TORICAL READING;  they  cultivate  a  taste  for  the  BEST  LITERATURE; 
and  by  inspiring  examples  they  teach  PATRIOTISM. 


SEVERAL  VOLUMES  ALREADY  PUBLISHED.     OTHERS  IN 
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Liberal  Terms  for  Supplies  to  Schools 


"  TRAINING  FOR  CITIZENSHIP  " 

THE 
AMERICAN   GOVERNMENT 

NATIONAL  AND  STATE 


B.  A.  HINSDALE,  PH.D.,  LL.D. 

Professor  of  the  Science  and  the  Art  of  Teaching  in  the  University  of  Michigan 


Extra  Silk  Cloth.    4.96  Pages,  I2mo.     Price,  $1.25 

NEW  AND  REVISED  EDITION 

HINSDALE' S  American  Government  has  been  written  with 
three  classes  of  persons  constantly  in  mind:     (i)  Students 
who  are  studying  the  American  government  in  Colleges ; 
(2)  Students  who  are  studying  it  in  High  Schools,  Academies,  or 
Normal  Schools  of  high-grade ;  and    (3)  Teachers  of  History  and 
Civics  in  Elementary  and  Secondary  Schools. 

The  general  character  of  the  work,  as  respects  subject-matter, 
is  shown  by  its  main  divisions. 

Introduction — Political  Science;  Terms  defined.    16  pages 

Part      I.     The  Making  of  the  American  Government.    92  pages 

Part    IL     The  National  Government.    252,  pages 

Part  III.     The  State  Governments.    66  pages 

Appendix — Documents     Illustrative    of  the    Growth    of   the 

American   Union.    55  pages 
Indexes — n  pages 

It  gives  a  complete  view  of  our  dual  system  of  government. 
In  developing  the  state  side  of  this  system,  the  author  supplies  a 
manifest  want  in  similar  treatises,,  and  is  thoroughly  in  accord  with 
the  spirit  of  the  times. 


"TRAINING  FOR  CITIZENSHIP" 

THE  STATE  GOVERNMENT 
SERIES 

UNDER  THE  GENERAL  EDITORSHIP  OK 

B.  A.  HINSDALE,  PH.D.,  LL.D. 

Professor  of  the  Science  and  the  Art  of  Teaching  in  the  University  of  Michigan 


EACH  VOLUME  IS  ARRANGED  UNDER  THREE  MAIN  HEADS 

Part      I.    HISTORY  OF  THE  STATE  — Discovery  and  Exploration  — Settlement  — 

State  Growth. 
Part    II.    CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  OF  THE  STATE— Town— City— County— State, 

Legislative,  Executive,  Judicial. 
Part  III.    GOVERNMENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES— Making  of  the  Gevern- 

ment — Congress — Executive  and  Judicial  Departments  —  The    States 

and  the  Union. 

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Hinsdale  and  Mary  L.  Hinsdale.  365  pages.  Cloth.  Illus- 
trated. $1.00. 

HISTORY  AND  CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  OF  OHIO,  by  Dr.  B.  A.  Hinsdale 
and  Mary  L.  Hinsdale.  368 pages.  Cloth.  Illustrated.  $1.00. 

HISTORY  AND  CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  OF  IOWA,  by  H.  H.  Seerley, 
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HISTORY  AND  CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  OF  MINNESOTA,  by  Sanford  Niles. 
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HISTORY  AND  CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  OF  SOUTH  DAKOTA,  by  George 
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OTHER  VOLUMES  IN  PREPARATION 


TWO  VALUABLE  CONTRIBUTIONS 
TO  EDUCATION 

Studies  in  Education 

Science,  Art,  History 

BY 

B.  A.  HINSDALE,  PH.  D.,  LL.  D. 

Professor  of  the  Science  and  the  Art  of  Teaching 
in  the  University  of  Michigan. 

This  book  -consists  of  the  author's  more  serious 
miscellaneous  contributions  to  educational  litera- 
ture during  the  last  ten  years.  They  are  in  the 
author's  well  -  known  style  —  direct,  clear,  and 
convincing. 

Cloth,  384.  pages.  Mailing  price,  $1.00 

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BY 

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Portrait  of  Author. 

Paper,  44  pages.  Mailing  price,  loc. 


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